Watch Live: President Obama Honors Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients

Today, President Obama will honor fifteen recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a ceremony at the White House. As the President said, “These outstanding honorees come from a broad range of backgrounds and they’ve excelled in a broad range of fields, but all of them have lived extraordinary lives that have inspired us, enriched our culture, and made our country and our world a better place.  I look forward to awarding them this honor.”

The Nation’s highest civilian honor, the 2010 Medal of Freedom is presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors. 

Watch the 2010 Medal of Freedom Ceremony live at 1:30 p.m. EST on WhiteHouse.gov/live.

The following individuals will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom at today's ceremony (read their full bios here):

• President George H. W. Bush
  George Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st President of the United States.
• Chancellor Angela Merkel
  Angela Merkel is the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.
• Congressman John Lewis
  John Lewis is an American hero and a giant of the Civil Rights Movement.
• John H. Adams
  John H. Adams co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council in 1970.
• Maya Angelou
  Dr. Maya Angelou is a prominent and celebrated author, poet, educator, producer, actress, filmmaker, and civil rights activist, who is currently the Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.  
• Warren Buffett
  Warren Buffett is an American investor, industrialist, and philanthropist.  He is one of the most successful investors in the world.
• Jasper Johns
  American artist Jasper Johns has produced a distinguished body of work dealing with themes of perception and identity since the mid-1950s.
• Gerda Weissmann Klein
  Gerda Weissmann Klein is a Jewish Holocaust survivor who has written several books about her experiences.
• Dr. Tom Little (Posthumous)
  Dr. Tom Little was an optometrist who was brutally murdered on August 6, 2010, by the Taliban in the Kuran Wa Munjan district of Badakhshan, Afghanistan, along with nine other members of a team returning from a humanitarian mission to provide vision care in the remote Parun valley of Nuristan. 
• Yo-Yo Ma
  Yo-Yo Ma is considered the world’s greatest living cellist, recognized as a prodigy since the age of five whose celebrity transcends the world of classical music.
• Sylvia Mendez
  Sylvia Mendez is a civil rights activist of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent. 
• Stan Musial
  Stan “The Man” Musial is a baseball legend and Hall of Fame first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals.   Musial played 22 seasons for the Cardinals from 1941 to 1963.
• Bill Russell
  Bill Russell is the former Boston Celtics’ Captain who almost single-handedly redefined the game of basketball.
• Jean Kennedy Smith
  In 1974, Jean Kennedy Smith founded VSA, a non-profit organization affiliated with the John F. Kennedy Center that promotes the artistic talents of children, youth and adults with disabilities.
• John J. Sweeney
  John J. Sweeney is the current President Emeritus of the AFL-CIO, and served as President of the AFL-CIO from 1995 to 2009.