Hoover Gravesite

President Herbert Hoover died in New York City on October 20, 1964, at the age of 90. Five days later his body was interred on a hillside overlooking his birthplace and presidential library, a symbolic vista of his journey from birth to death. The remains of Lou Henry Hoover, who died on January 7, 1944, were moved from California and placed beside her husband. Their son Allan selected the gravesite. Iowa architect William Wagner designed the memorial in collaboration with the Hoover family and William Anderson of the Hoover Birthplace Society. The two plainly inscribed gravestones reflect Quaker simplicity. Before Hoover's burial in West Branch, a service was held in New York City and his body lay in state at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington. A military honor guard carried Hoover's casket to the gravesite, and more than 100,000 people lined the funeral procession from Cedar Rapids to West Branch.

West Branch, Iowa · United States