Feb. 26 (UPI) -- A public memorial service for Rev. Billy Graham began in North Carolina Monday morning, and will run through the end of the week -- and culminate with a funeral Friday, that will see President Donald Trump in attendance.
Graham, a prominent evangelist who for decades advised presidents and was among the first to use television as a way of presenting his brand of Christianity, died Wednesday at his Montreat, N.C., home at the age of 99.
A hearse carrying Graham's body arrived at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte Sunday, part of a 10-vehicle motorcade.
Graham will lie in repose at the library until Wednesday, when his casket will then travel to the U.S. Capitol rotunda in Washington. Graham's casket returns to Charlotte for burial Friday.
"My father made me promise long ago that we would take him back to Charlotte after he died," son Franklin Graham said.
As the motorcade in North Carolina Sunday wound through a 130-mile route, thousands of admirers lined streets -- many carrying American flags, flags with Christian symbolism and handmade signs of appreciation.
Trump and more than 2,300 others are expected to attend Friday's funeral. The services will be conducted under a massive tent reminiscent of Graham's eight-week "crusade" of evangelism in Los Angeles in 1949. About 350,000 people attended his sermons there. The event first drew attention to Graham's oratorical gift and mission.
Often referred to as "America's pastor," Graham was widely revered and his death drew an outpouring of grief. In his lifetime, he appeared on the Gallup Poll's annual list of most admired men a record 61 times.