Obama delivers rousing eulogy for SC Sen. Clementa Pinckney

3:10 p.m.: President Barack Obama delivered a rousing eulogy for the pastor of Emanuel AME Church in Charleston who was among the nine slain last week.

"The nation shares in your grief," Obama said Friday during a eulogy for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41, who was shot and killed during a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Eight others also died.

"What a good man," Obama said. "What an example he set."

Obama received enthusiastic applause and several standing ovations from the crowd of more than 5,000 mourners. He also called for an end to the display of the Confederate flag. The shooting suspect was seen in photos displaying the flag.

"By taking down that flag, we express God's grace," he said.

Obama also decried gun violence in the U.S.

2:20 p.m.:

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have entered an arena in Charleston, South Carolina, where a funeral is underway for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney.

The Obamas took seats in the first row of the College of Charleston's TD Arena. They were accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill. They were seated amid more than 5,000 mourners and joined in the signing of hymns.

Obama is to deliver a eulogy for Pinckney, who — along with eight other African-Americans — was shot to death at a Charleston church last week.

A 21-year-old suspect, Dylann Storm Roof, is charged in their murders.

1:40 p.m.:

President Barack Obama has arrived in Charleston for the funeral of a victim of last week's shooting at a black church. Nine African-Americans were killed when a gunman opened fire during a Bible study.

Obama was scheduled to deliver a eulogy Friday afternoon for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney. Afterward, White House officials said, the president will also meet with the families of the victims.

Obama met Pinckney in 2007; Pinckney was an early supporter of Obama's presidential campaign.

Air Force One touched down at 1:04 p.m. House Speaker John Boehner and first lady Michelle Obama were also on board. White House spokesman Eric Schultz confirmed that it was Boehner's first flight aboard that aircraft during Obama's presidency.

A separate aircraft was to bring a delegation of lawmakers.

Our original story continues below:

In the unrelenting heat they waited for hours, hoping for a chance to see and hear the prayers, the thanks, and the good-byes in person, one last connection to the man who had touched each of their lives in a profound way.

But for many of those old friends and classmates of slain Sen. Clementa Pinckney, that chance never came.

Two busloads of colleagues, old friends and relatives from Jasper County made it into TD Arena in Charleston for Pinckney's funeral service Friday morning, but many more who traveled alone did not, said Vanessa Williams, an old neighbor of Pinckney's of the Green Acres neighborhood in Ridgeland.

Williams grew up two doors down from Pinckney. His mother, Theopia Stevenson Aiken, baby-sat Williams' daughter. She and two other women who knew Pinckney for most of their lives -- Felicia Lawton and Topeka Williams -- left Bluffton around 4:30 a.m., hoping for a chance to make it inside.

They arrived in Charleston a little after 6 a.m., joining the line a half-block from Emanuel AME Church and a stone's throw from a statue honoring John C. Calhoun defaced with red paint. The women were feet from the doors at TD Arena when police told them the arena was full.

So while many who waited in the sun and the heat in the line snaking down Meeting Street were just happy to revel in the love and the emotion, the feeling of being so close to it all was bittersweet, the three women said.

Lawton was able to attend the viewing in Ridgeland on Thursday for Pinckney, who as pastor presided over her sister and brother-in-law's marriage ceremony. She was one of the first in line at St. John's AME Church, but the other two women weren't able to make that service.

"Everyone said he had a big smile on his face," Lawton said. "We were all there to share in the fellowship with each other."

The women were there Friday to "share the love," to honor the man they had known for so long -- the man they knew was bound for greatness at an early age, Topeka Williams said.

"He was the type of person you could meet, and know in the first five minutes he was bound for greatness," she said. "I told a friend who had seen him on the news that everything you'd read about him is correct. You'd never find a more salt-of-the-earth man than him."

Topeka Williams was a grade ahead of Pinckney at Jasper County High School, recounting with a smile how he kept her "out of trouble many a day."

Pinckney's high school graduating class all came to Charleston to mourn their fallen classmate, but none made it in, Vanessa Williams said. The group -- dressed in black, with purple flowers for Pinckney -- headed elsewhere to watch the ceremony, she said.

Many others from Beaufort and Jasper counties stopped to talk to the women as they waited in line, to recount tales and memories of Pinckney.

Vanessa Williams, like so many, realized at a young age just how special Pinckney was.

"He was always so smart, so we called him nerdy," she said. "He was always the mature one, always cool-headed and level. He was an old soul."

Live updates from the funeral

This story was originally published June 26, 2015 at 7:51 AM with the headline "Obama delivers rousing eulogy for SC Sen. Clementa Pinckney."