3 Former Presidents, Hundreds Of Mourners Remember Zell Miller
Georgia State Patrol troopers salute the casket containing the remains of former Sen. and former Georgia Gov. Zell Miller during a funeral service, Tuesday, March 27, 2018, in Atlanta.
John Bazemore / Associated Press
Former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are sharing a pew and a pulpit Tuesday at an Atlanta church, where hundreds of mourners are remembering former Georgia Gov. and U.S. Sen. Zell Miller.
The funeral at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church is the second of three public services for Miller, who died Friday at the age of 86.
“Zell Millers just don’t come along very often,” said the Rev. Bill Britt at the opening of the service, with Carter, Clinton and Bush seated on the first pew near Miller’s flag-draped casket.
The author of Georgia’s HOPE college scholarship program, Miller was a lifelong Democrat but is the only American to have delivered the keynote address at a Democratic and Republican national convention. He did it for Clinton, a Democrat, in 1992 and Bush, a Republican, in 2004.
Miller served as governor from 1991 to 1999 and then as U.S. senator from 2000 to 2005.
He began his political career as a city councilman in his tiny Appalachian hometown of Young Harris before being elected to the state Senate, where he served with Carter.
Besides eulogies from three presidents, the church service is replete with hymns from Miller’s Methodist faith and a eulogy from one of his grandsons, Bryan Miller.
Miller was celebrated Monday in his hometown of Young Harris in the north Georgia mountains where he was born and where he died.
After Tuesday’s service, Zell Miller will lie in state at the Georgia Capitol until a state funeral Wednesday.
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