Longest-serving member of Congress earned bipartisan respect

a civil rights icon, recollected Dingell’s support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a move that threatened his reelection 10 years into his tenure.

“John voted for the bill as an act of conscience,” Lewis said. “John did not run from his decision. He stood on the courage of his conviction.”

Former House Speaker John Boehner, R-ohio, said that Dingell was “a mentor to many of us who served in the Congress” and said he “was revered by Democrats and Republicans alike.”

Like others, he recalled Dingell’s blunt nature, saying he was not “all honey and no vinegar.” Boehner characterized that as “tough love,” adding: “You always knew where you stood with Mr. Dingell.”

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-MD., also touched on Dingell’s personality, saying he “never minced words, he never held back.”

Hoyer recalled that when he first arrived in Congress, Dingell had already been there for a quarter century. They would go on to serve with one another for 33 years.

“Like many of the freshman at the time, I saw him as larger than life,” Hoyer said. “I never stopped looking up to him.”

Clinton said that in speaking with Dingell, one could get “your hide ripped off from time to time.” But Clinton called that part of “an honest friendship.”

He praised Dingell as “a world-class doer” and spoke about the profound influence on his life of his wife, Debbie Dingell, who represents his district in Congress.

During the service, she sat in a front-row pew between Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Patrick J. Conroy, the House chaplain, served as the main celebrant of the Mass, delivering a homily in which he recalled Dingell’s deep Catholicism. One of the first to visit Conroy upon his installation as chaplain in 2011, Dingell bonded with the Jesuit priest and even after retiring would ask to visit Conroy.

The priest recalled walking from the Capitol to the office of Rep. Debbie Dingell and praying with her husband. John Dingell would wonder whether he had led a worthy life, Conroy said.

“Father, am I all right with the Lord?” Dingell asked Conroy.

In his homily, Conroy recounted Dingell’s work on civil rights and other legislation that reflected the Gospel’s Beatitudes, looking finally at Dingell’s casket to say yes.

“Recline now in the bosom of your Lord Jesus,” Conroy said.

Washington Post photo by Bill O’leary An honor guard carries the casket of Rep. John Dingell from Holy Trinity church in Washington, followed by his widow, Debbie Dingell, rear left, and former President Bill Clinton, right, after funeral services.