Memorial Plans Set for Sen. Robert Byrd in Washington and W.Va.

(June 30) -- Sen. Robert Byrd will make a final trip to his home state of West Virginia on Thursday, after he lies in repose in the U.S. Senate chamber where he served for half a century, his Senate office announced.

The longest-serving member of Congress, who died Monday at 92, will be memorialized in Washington and West Virginia in the days leading up to his funeral July 6 in Arlington, Va.

Members of the House and Senate will pay their respects to Byrd Thursday morning at the U.S. Capitol, before the public will be welcomed to honor the Democratic senator in the Senate's public galleries in the afternoon. Byrd's casket will then be shuttled from Andrews Air Force Base to Charleston, W.Va., where he will lie in repose overnight in the rotunda of the state Capitol.

U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd asks a question during a hearing on May 20.

Alex Wong, Getty Images

U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd, who died Monday, will lie in repose in the Senate and will be buried July 6 in Arlington, Va.

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are expected to attend a public memorial service at the West Virginia Capitol's North Plaza on Friday, before Byrd's casket returns to Washington for his funeral July 6 at the Memorial Baptist Church in Arlington. Byrd's internment will be private. He will be laid to rest near his wife, Erma, in Arlington.

Byrd, often called the dean of the Senate, will be only the third person in history to lie in repose on the U.S. Senate floor, according to ABC News. The last senator to lie in repose in the chamber was North Dakota Republican and staunch anti-communist William "Wild Bill" Langer, who died in 1959. The only other senator to lie there was Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., in 1957.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said he hopes to wrap up the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan today, leaving Thursday for outside witnesses and allowing senators to travel to West Virginia on Friday to attend Byrd's memorial service.

Byrd's death leaves his home state without its longtime Democratic pillar. Although Byrd's party controls the state Legislature, both Senate seats and two of the state's three House seats, Republican John McCain carried West Virginia in the 2008 presidential election. Some state Republicans see an opportunity in the two years leading up to the special election to replace Byrd in November 2012.

"People don't vote one way for 70 years and then change overnight," Troy Berman, director of the West Virginia Republican Party, told The New York Times. "This is a conservative state, and as the Democrats drift toward the liberal end of the spectrum, more folks are finding their way to the Republican Party."