The body of West Virginia Democrat Robert C. Byrd will lie Thursday from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. in repose in the Senate chamber, where he served for more than half a century.

He will then be brought back home to West Virginia where his body will lie in the Capitol's lower rotunda for people to honor him from 9 P.M. Thursday until 9 A.M. Friday.

That will be followed by a formal memorial service at the Capitol's north plaza at 11:30 A.M. Friday.

Byrd, who died early Monday at 92, was fond of saying that he loved the institution more than its members.

He was the unquestioned expert on the Senate's bewildering rules and traditions, and he was the longest-serving member of Congress in history.

He was third in the line of presidential succession, behind Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Law enforcement officials and a knowledgeable Senate aide said Byrd's casket will lie in repose in the Senate chamber, rather than the Capitol Rotunda.