INDIANAPOLIS -- Thousands gathered for a day of mourning and a day of celebration to pay their final respects to U.S. Rep. Julia Carson at a funeral that lasted more than three hours and ended with an emotional graveside tribute.

Dozens of dignitaries were on hand, including Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan, Gov. Mitch Daniels, Sen. Richard Lugar and former Sen. Birch Bayh. All packed into the 2,200-seat Eastern Star Church to honor the six-term congresswoman.

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Images: Rep. Julia Carson's Memorial, Funeral

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Political friends and foes stepped to the microphone during the service to deliver short messages about Carson. No matter the political persuasion, all had reverence for the congresswoman, shared warm thoughts and remembered her as a tough-minded woman of faith.

"When I heard that she was gone, I said, 'There will never be another Julia Carson,'" Bayh said.

Speakers praised Carson's personal style of politics and marveled at her rise from poverty to the halls of Congress and her tireless fight for the poor.

"She talked about education, health care, civil justice and racial justice," Lugar said. "She not only talked about these things, she was by far the most remarkable political figure in obtaining these things."

"Our mothers all taught us that if you want the tea sweet, you can't just let the sugar stay at the bottom. You've got to stir it and stir it," Daniels said. "Nobody ever stirred the tea or stirred things up in our town better than Julia Carson, and she left sweet, sweet memories."

Others spoke of Carson's rise to power from humble beginnings.

"No matter where you are from, Julia Carson is proof that if you humble yourself, God can raise you up," said Jeffrey Johnson, pastor of Eastern Star Church.

Andre Carson, grandson of Julia and urged by many to run for her seat in Congress, said God had a plan for his grandmother.

"Here's a woman born to a single 15-year-old mother. The congresswoman herself had her first child at 16, her second at 17," Andre Carson said. "Social scientists would have written her off, but she had God's favor on her life."

Radio and television host Tavis Smiley said Carson's success was owed to the power of love.

"Julia Carson's definition of love was this: Everybody is worthy," Smiley said.

Carson died of cancer Dec. 15 at age 69. She was first elected to Congress in 1996 as the first woman and the first black person to represent Indianapolis in Congress.

Her first chief of staff, Fran Quigley, read condolences sent by Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and President George W. Bush.

Farrakhan said Carson would likely be "blown away" by the pomp and circumstance of the ceremonies honoring her. A memorial service Friday featured a horse-drawn military caisson to carry her body to the Statehouse, and Saturday's burial included full military honors at Crown Hill Cemetery.

"She was a simple woman. She was a servant of the poor," Farrakhan said. "She did walk with kings and rulers, but she never let kings and rulers rule her."

Speakers also included the grass-roots organizers of her campaigns, relatives and local officials who worked with Carson.

Some recalled the influence Carson had on them by urging them to run for various offices and working in local districts to turn out the vote. Grass roots activist Burnetta Sloss Tanner said she and Carson would stand in the rain and cold to pass out campaign literature.

"We would be running campaigns out of a garage," she said.

State Rep. William Crawford, chairman of the powerful Indiana House Ways and Means Committee, said Carson encouraged him to run for his first political office in the 1970s.

"I owe my 36 years in public service to Julia Carson," he said. "She taught me that you should never let ambition trump principal. That was her guiding mantra."