Effort to move former president Polk's body is resurrected


              The burial place of President James K. Polk and his wife, Sarah Polk, is seen on the grounds of the state Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., on Friday, March 24, 2017. A resolution being considered in the state Legislature calls for exhuming their bodies and moving them to the James K. Polk Home and Museum in Columbia, Tenn. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)
The burial place of President James K. Polk and his wife, Sarah Polk, is seen on the grounds of the state Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., on Friday, March 24, 2017. A resolution being considered in the state Legislature calls for exhuming their bodies and moving them to the James K. Polk Home and Museum in Columbia, Tenn. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The body of former president James K. Polk has been moved three times since he died of cholera in 1849, and now an effort to move it again has taken on a life of its own in the Tennessee Legislature.

A much-debated resolution urging that his remains be moved to a fourth resting place appeared dead last month, but was resurrected before winning final approval Monday night in the House.

After two moves in the 1800s, the bodies of Polk and his wife, Sarah, were interred on the grounds of the Tennessee Capitol in 1893. The resolution would let them be reinterred at the Polk museum in Columbia, about 50 miles away.

The state Historic Commission, the state Capitol Commission and a court would have to approve moving the bodies.

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