Jimmy Carter’s long public farewell began on Saturday in Georgia, with the flag-draped coffin of the 39th US president carrying his father from the Depression-era South and family farming operations to the pinnacle of American political power. , and followed his long trajectory into his decades as a global humanitarian.
These chapters shone through the opening portion of a six-day state funeral intended to blend a personal memorial service with the ceremonial pomp afforded to the former president. Carter, the oldest living person in the United States, died on December 29th at the age of 100.
“He was a wonderful man. He was held up, supported and comforted by a wonderful woman,” his son, James Earl “Chip” Carter III, told mourners at the Carter Center late Saturday afternoon. He also mentioned his father, former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who passed away in 2023. “Together, they changed the world. And it was amazing to see them so close.”
“It’s amazing what you can cram into 100 years,” said his grandson, Jason Carter, who currently serves as the center’s board chairman.
Carter’s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren accompanied the patriarch as his hearse passed through his hometown of Plains on the first Saturday. With about 700 residents, it is not much larger than it was when Carter was born there on October 1, 1924. The procession stopped at a farm. There, the future president worked alongside the black sharecroppers who worked for his father. The motorcade continued into Atlanta, stopping in front of the Georgia State Capitol, where Mr. Carter served as a state senator and reformist governor.
Finally, he gave a speech to the Carter Presidential Center, which houses the Presidential Library and set a new standard for what former presidents can do as a post-White House home for defending public health, democracy, and human rights. Arrived for my last visit. Achieve after they empower.
“His spirit fills this place,” Jason Carter said at a gathering attended by some of the center’s 3,000 employees from around the world. “You are carrying on the vibrant legacy of my grandfather’s life’s work,” he added.
Saturday’s pallbearers included the Secret Service, which has protected the Carters for nearly half a century, and a military honor guard that included the only Naval Academy graduate to reach the Oval Office. A military band played “Long Live the Chief” and “Be Thou My Vision,” a hymn to the commander-in-chief, who was also a devout Baptist.
His longtime personal pastor, the Rev. Tony Rhoden, remembered the frail man, not the president, who had spent the past 22 months in hospice care “wrapped in a blanket” that included the words of Psalm 23. I did.
Chip Carter recalled a “boss” he had to make an appointment to meet in the Oval Office, but who spent the entire Christmas break studying Latin and teaching his 8th grade son, who failed a test. I also remembered my father. Taking the test again, young Carter said he passed, “I owe it to my dad to spend that time with me.”
Jimmy Carter will rest at the Carter Presidential Center from 7pm Saturday to 6am Tuesday, and the public will be able to pay their respects 24 hours a day.
Scott Lyle, an engineer who grew up in Georgia and now lives in New York, was one of the first mourners to pay their respects. Lyle said he first joined Carter in 2003 to build homes with Habitat for Humanity in LaGrange, Georgia. Since then, he has traveled around the world building homes with groups.
“I got to see things up close that some people don’t get to see. He was a wonderful person and cared about others. He walked the walk,” Carter said. said Lyle, who was wearing themed Habitat gear. “And I can’t think of anyone else who would want to be in line to pay their respects.”
State rites will continue in Washington, concluding Thursday with a funeral service at the Washington National Cathedral, before returning to the Plains. There, the former president will be buried next to his wife of 77 years, near the home he built before his first state Senate campaign in 1962.
The Carters lived on the Plains for most of their lives, except for four years in the Governor’s Mansion and four years in the White House while serving in the Navy. As the president’s hearse rolled through the city, mourners lined Main Street, some carrying bouquets of flowers and wearing pins with portraits of the former president and his signature smile.
Willie Browner, 75, said Mr. Carter comes from a bygone era in American politics.
“This guy was thinking about more than himself,” said Browner, who grew up in the town of Parrot, about 15 miles from Plains. Browner said it “means a lot” that the president comes from a small Southern town like his, and worries that something like this is unlikely to happen again.
In fact, Carter helped plan his own funeral and emphasized that his remarkable rise to the world stage was due to, not to, his deep rural roots.
Spanning several blocks of Plains, the motorcade passed near the Carter family’s peanut warehouse and the small house where her mother, a nurse, gave birth to the future first lady in 1927. The hearse passed through an old train depot. It served as President Carter’s campaign headquarters in 1976. It’s a bare-bones effort that relies on public funding, dwarfing the multibillion-dollar U.S. presidential campaigns of the 21st century.
At the Carter farm, dozens of National Park Service rangers stood in formation in front of the house, which had no running water or electricity when Carter was a boy. The old farm bell was rung 39 times to honor Carter’s status as the 39th president.
Next to the house is the tennis court that Carter’s father, James Earl Carter Sr., built for his family. This is a nod to the mix of privilege and harsh rural life that characterized the later president’s upbringing. Carter farmed the land throughout the Great Depression, which was owned by Old Man Carter, who employed surrounding black sharecroppers during the era of Jim Crow segregation.
Carter has written and lectured extensively about his formative years and how the dire poverty and systemic racism he witnessed influenced his policies in government and human rights work.
Former Georgia Congressman Calvin Smear remembered his legacy Saturday at the state Capitol. Mr. Smear, who is black, said Mr. Carter’s rejection of racism allowed black people to wield power in Georgia.
“We stand on the shoulders of courageous people like Jimmy Carter,” Smear said. “What he did shocked and shook the political ground here in Georgia, and we’re all better off because of it.”
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Payne reported from Plains, Georgia.
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Bill Barrow is based in Atlanta and has covered national politics, including multiple presidential campaigns, for The Associated Press since 2012.
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More from The Associated Press: https://apnews.com/hub/jimmy-carter
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