Funeral services for former President Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29 at the age of 100, will begin in Georgia over a six-day period starting Saturday.
The first reflects Carter’s rise up the political ladder from the small town of Plains, Georgia, to his decades on the world stage as a humanitarian and defender of democracy. .
Here’s what you need to know about the first rites and what happens next.
Start celebrates Carter’s deep roots in rural South Georgia
The proceedings, which will be streamed on apnews.com and The Associated Press’ YouTube channel, are scheduled to begin at 10:15 a.m. ET Saturday with the Carter family’s arrival at Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in the Americus. .
Former Secret Service agents who protected Carter will serve as pallbearers and walk alongside the hearse as it leaves campus for Plains.
James Earl Carter Jr. spent more than 80 of its 100 years in and around this town, which still had a population of fewer than 700 people when he was born on October 1, 1924. It’s not much different. While other modern presidents — Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton — grew up in rural areas, Carter stands out for returning to and staying in his hometown for long periods after taking office.
The motorcade passed just a few blocks through downtown Plains, near the childhood home of First Lady Rosalynn Smith Carter, who died in November 2023 at age 96, and where the couple ran a family peanut warehouse. Passing by the place where I was. The route also includes an old train depot that served as Jimmy Carter’s 1976 presidential campaign headquarters and a gas station once operated by Carter’s brother Billy.
The motorcade then passes the Methodist church where the Carters were married in 1946 and the home where they lived and died. The former president will be buried there with Rosalyn.
The Carters built their one-story home, now surrounded by Secret Service fencing, before their first state Senate campaign in 1962, and apart from four years in the governor’s mansion and another four years in the White House, I lived there.
A stop at Carter’s boyhood home – a blend of privilege and hard work
The military-run schedule passes the cemetery where the former president’s parents, James Earl Carter Sr. and Lillian Carter, are buried, then stops at Carter’s family farm and boyhood home in the Plains suburb of Archery. It is scheduled to stop in front of the train at 10:50 a.m.
The farm is now part of Jimmy Carter National Historical Park. The National Park Service will ring the old farmhouse bell 39 times in honor of the 39th president.
Carter was the first president born in a hospital. But when he was born, there was no electricity or running water at home, and he worked on his father’s land during the Great Depression. Still, the Carter family enjoyed relative privilege and status. Earle employed black sharecroppers. Old Man Carter also owned a store on the Plains and was a local civic and political leader. Lillian is a nurse and gave birth to Rosalyn. The tennis court that Earl built for his family still stands on this property.
It was Earl’s death in 1953 that led Jimmy to the Oval Office. The young Carters left the Plains after graduating from the Naval Academy. However, after his father’s death, Jimmy abandoned a promising career as a submarine officer and an early participant in the Pentagon’s nuclear program to take over his family’s peanut business. Within ten years, he was elected to the Georgia State Senate.
Mr. Carter lies peacefully in Atlanta, where he was a statesman and world figure.
The motorcade will head north from Archery to Atlanta, stopping at the Georgia State Capitol at 3 p.m. He served as a state senator from 1963 to 1967 and as governor from 1971 to 1975. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens pause for a moment. Former governors are remembered at state-run funerals, while presidents, even if they served as governor, are remembered at state ceremonies run by the federal government.
The motorcade is then scheduled to arrive at the Carter Presidential Center at 3:45 p.m., with a private service scheduled for 4 p.m. The campus is home to the Carter Presidential Library and the Carter Center, founded in 1982 by the former president and first lady.
Mr. Carter will be in repose for 24 hours from 7 p.m. Saturday to 6 a.m. Monday for the public to pay their respects.
The ceremony will also include some of the Carter Center’s 3,000 global staff, whose work focuses on international diplomacy and mediation, election monitoring and combating disease in developing countries, and whose work includes former presidents continues to set the standard for what can be achieved.
Jimmy Carter, who submitted annual reports until 2019, won the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize in part for his post-presidential efforts. His grandson, Jason Carter, currently serves as chairman of the board of directors.
What’s Next: A Return to Washington
Carter’s remains will be taken next door to Washington and will rest in the Capitol Rotunda until his funeral at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Washington National Cathedral. All living presidents have been invited, and Joe Biden, an ally of President Carter, is expected to deliver the eulogy.
The Carter family then returned to Plains after a private funeral service in their hometown at 3:45 p.m. at Maranatha Baptist Church, where Mr. Carter, a devout evangelical, taught Sunday school for decades. He plans to return to bury the patriarch.
Mr. Carter will then be buried in a private cemetery on the grounds, visible from the front porch of his home.
Source link
