The Pittsburgh Press (April 30, 1944)
Knox funeral to place him in hero’s rank
Full military honors to be accorded
Washington (UP) – (April 29)
Final arrangements were completed today for the funeral of Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, who will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery Monday with the honors accorded a man who died fighting for his country. Mr. Knox died yesterday of a heart ailment at the age of 70.
Four battalions of Marines, bluejackets, Coast Guardsmen and women members of the naval services will form the escort. Honorary pallbearers will include top-ranking civilian and naval officials of the Navy Department.
Services at church
Services will be held at 2:00 p.m. Monday ET in the Mount Pleasant Congregational Church, where Secretary and Mrs. Knox were regular attendants. Rev. Fred A. Buschmeyer, pastor of the church, who lived in the same neighborhood as the Secretary’s family in Manchester, New Hampshire, will officiate. Navy Chaplain S. W. Salisbury will assist.
The pallbearers will be four bluejackets, two Marines and two Coast Guardsmen.
A Guard of Honor consisting of two bluejackets and two Marines will be mounted at Gawler’s Funeral Home, less than two blocks from the White House, until the body is taken to the church.
Army to take part
After the church services, the hearse will bear the casket to the corner of 15th Street and Constitution Avenue – two blocks from the office where Mr. Knox had served since 1940. There the casket will be transferred to a horse-drawn caisson furnished by the Army. A Navy band will lead the escort.
Just preceding the caisson, Marine Warrant Officer William A. Pierce will carry the late Secretary’s personal flag.
At about 3:00 p.m., the escort will start moving toward Memorial Bridge to cross the Potomac to Arlington.
Bugler to sound taps
The committal service at the grave will be conducted by Chaplain Salisbury, a bluejacket detachment will fire the volley and a Navy bugler will sound taps for the man who served his nation twice on foreign battlefields in the uniform of the Army.
Memorial services will also be held at 2:00 p.m. Monday outside the Navy Building and at the Navy Annex in Arlington, Virginia.
At 2:45 p.m. Monday, the Navy Department will close – except for skeleton staffs – for the remainder of the day.
The honorary pallbearers will include: Acting Secretary James Forrestal, Adm. Ernest J. King (Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Fleet), VAdm. Russel R. Waesche (Coast Guard commandant), Lt. Gen. A. A. Vandegrift (Marine commandant).