President Obama paid tribute to McGovern as "a champion for peace" and a "statesman of great conscience and conviction." At a memorial service in Sioux Falls, Vice President Joe Biden eulogized McGovern, addressing his World War II service and his opposition to the Vietnam War by saying to his family, "Your father was a genuine hero... Had your father not been in the Senate, so much more blood, so much more treasure would have been wasted." His funeral was held in the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science in Sioux Falls, with his ashes to be buried alongside his wife and daughter Terry at Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington.