An honor guard carried the body of Jim Exon, a former U.S. senator and two-term governor, to the Capitol on Tuesday to lie in state in the Rotunda.

Exon, who served eight years as governor and 18 in the Senate, died Friday of cancer at age 83.

Exon's casket was carried through the north grand entrance, into the vestibule and down the main foyer of the Capitol by honor guards from the Nebraska National Guard and State Patrol.

The casket was to be carried out of the Capitol after the eight-hour public viewing and return on Wednesday for the 4 p.m. CDT funeral, which also will be held in the Rotunda.

Exon, known as the father of the modern Democratic Party in Nebraska, was governor from 1971 through 1978 and served in the U.S. Senate from 1979 to 1997.

He will be eulogized by one-time presidential candidate Bob Kerrey, who also served as governor and as U.S. senator, and longtime friend and political adviser Chuck Pallesen.

Dozens of people stood across from the Capitol and lined the hallway and Rotunda as the honor guard carried in the flag-draped casket.

It was placed behind velvet ropes in the center of the Rotunda. To one side was a family portrait of Exon.

His daughters, Pamela Bricker and Candace Wolf, and son, Stephen Exon Sr., were the first to approach the casket and pay their respects. Before leaving, Stephen kissed the top of the casket as the rest of the family came forward.

Among those on hand Tuesday was Richard Paulson, a former Nebraskan now living in Kansas City, Missouri.

"I always admired him," Paulson said. "I just figured I'd come up here out of respect."

Also Tuesday, it was announced that Nebraska's U.S. senators, Democrat Ben Nelson and Republican Chuck Hagel, will lead a delegation of several of their colleagues attending Wednesday's funeral service.

"Senator Hagel and I are pleased that some of our colleagues will be joining us ... to pay tribute to a great Nebraskan and to honor the life of Senator Jim Exon," Nelson said.

Exon's body is believed to be the first to lie in state in the Capitol.

He is the only Nebraskan besides George Norris, the architect of the state's one-house Legislature, to win five consecutive statewide elections.