>In the Nation

>

The daughter of the longest-living American to serve in World War I urged lawmakers to let her father, Frank Buckles, lie in the Capitol Rotunda to honor all the war’s veterans.

“There is no one left,” Susannah Buckles Flanagan wrote in a statement. “If we lost the opportunity to bestow this highest of honors on the person who was the last surviving representative, there can be no making it up later.” Buckles died last Sunday at age 110.

Leaders in Washington have been divided over how to best honor Buckles and the 4.7 million other Americans who served during World War I. West Virginia lawmakers want to see him lie in the Capitol Rotunda, and are upset with House and Senate leaders who have objected.

Flanagan, 55, said her father wanted to lie in the Rotunda after his death – not as a personal honor but in memory of all veterans of World War I. House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) are seeking Pentagon permission for ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, where Buckles will be buried.