Friends, family and former colleagues are honoring Colin L. Powell, the widely praised soldier-diplomat who rose from humble Bronx beginnings to become the first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and later served as the first Black secretary of state.
Powell is being remembered at a funeral Friday at the Washington National Cathedral. President Joe Biden is expected to attend but not speak. Eulogists are to be Madeleine Albright, who was Powell's immediate predecessor as the nation's top diplomat; Richard Armitage, who was deputy secretary under Powell and had known him since they served together in the Pentagon during the Reagan administration; and Powell's son Michael.
