WASHINGTON — Former D.C. Council member Jim Graham’s body was brought to the Wilson Building to lie in repose as he was remembered by friends and former colleagues Friday.
Graham, who served on the council from Ward 1 from 1999 to 2015, died June 11. He was 71 years old.
Mayor Muriel Bowser was joined by current and former council members as well as constituents, family and friends, at the Wilson Building where visitors—men and women alike—sported bow ties, a nod to Graham’s distinctive neckwear. The white casket bearing Graham’s body was draped with a giant rainbow-colored bowtie.
Noting Graham’s work as executive director at the Whitman Walker Clinic during the AIDS crisis, council member and former Mayor Vincent Gray said, “He helped people move away from this idea that having HIV and having AIDS was a death sentence. He was a leader.”
Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said of Graham, “He gave a lot of years of service, one way or another, to the citizens of the District of Columbia. … He believed that government could provide services to those who were most in need, and those who are poor.”
A viewing and religious service will be held Saturday at All Souls Unitarian Church on Harvard Street, in Northwest, starting at 10 a.m.
