Funeral arrangements have been set for for U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, 82, who died Friday night at a military hospital just outside Washington, D.C.
The Tampa Bay Times is reporting that one of the speakers will be House Speaker John Boehner.
Visitation for the public will be held Wednesday from 5 to 8 p.m. at Bill Young Armed Forces Reserve Center, 2801 Grand Ave. in Pinellas Park.
The public funeral will be held Thursday at at 1 p.m., First Baptist Indian Rocks, 12685 Ulmerton Road, in Largo. A burial open only to family and friends will follow.
Young, whose political career took him from the minority party in the Florida Senate to control of the U.S. House budget committee, died Friday night at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
At the time of his death, Young was the longest-serving member of Congress from Florida, having first won election in 1970. Young recently announced he would not seek reelection when his term expired in 2014.
Young was a symbol of the old way of doing things, where Southern lawmakers could proudly point to local projects funded with federal money as a campaign asset. Those earmarks are now a liability for many Republicans.
But many places around Tampa are a monument to Young’s career. Buildings at the University of South Florida’s Tampa and St. Petersburg campuses bear his name. So does a reservoir and a National Institutes of Health research facility.
