Georgia hosts procession and service to start Jimmy Carter’s state funeral

Jimmy Carter’s funeral procession began on Saturday in south Georgia, where the 39th U.S. president’s life started over a century ago.

A motorcade carrying Carter’s flag-draped casket departed from Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus, accompanied by former Secret Service agents who once protected him. 

These agents served as pallbearers, walking alongside the hearse as it left the campus.

The procession paused at Carter’s boyhood home on the family farm outside Plains, where the National Park Service rang the old farm bell 39 times in honor of his presidency. 

From there, Carter’s remains continued to Atlanta for a moment of silence at the Georgia Capitol and a ceremony at the Carter Presidential Center.

In Atlanta, Carter’s remains will then be transported to the Carter Presidential Center for an arrival ceremony at 3:45 pm, followed by a service at 4 pm. 

After the service, his body will lie in repose, allowing mourners to pay their respects from 7 pm until 6 am on Tuesday, January 7, 2025.

A state funeral will take place Thursday at 10 am at Washington National Cathedral, followed by a private funeral at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains.

Jimmy Carter will be laid to rest near his home, beside Rosalynn Carter. 

‘We want to pay our respects,’ 12-year-old Will Porter Shelbrock told WTOP News, who was born decades after Carter left office in 1981. Shelbrock traveled from Gainesville, Florida, with his grandmother, Susan Cone, 66, to witness Carter’s final journey.   

He admired Carter for his humanitarian work, advocacy for peace, and environmental efforts, such as installing solar panels on the White House.

A total of 2,000 guests are expected to visit Carter, Fox 5 Atlanta reports. 

Carter passed away almost two years after opting to spend his final days in hospice care.

His son, Chip Carter, 74, confirmed that the former president died at his Georgia home on Sunday around 3:40 pm ET.

A former peanut farmer and Democratic politician, Carter served one term in the White House from 1977 to 1981 before dedicating his life to charity.

After several hospitalizations, he chose to forgo further medical treatment and entered hospice care in February 2023.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate spent his final years in Plains, Georgia.

Carter’s wife of 77 years, Rosalynn, stayed by his side until her passing on November 19, 2023, at the age of 96.

At 100, Carter became the longest-living president in U.S. history.

His funeral arrangements were planned in 1986, reports Fox 5 Atlanta reports.

Though his presidency was marked by challenges like the oil crisis and the Iran hostage crisis, which lingered until the final moments of his term, Carter’s commitment to philanthropy made him one of the most beloved figures in American politics.

One of Carter’s final public appearances was on October 1, when he celebrated his 100th birthday at his Georgia home, surrounded by family and friends.

The former president, a Democrat, also cast his vote in the 2024 election.

Last year, he attended the funeral of his wife, Rosalynn, accompanied by former first ladies including Michelle Obama and Melania Trump.

Rosalynn, diagnosed with dementia, spent her final days with Carter at their home, where they were regularly visited by close family members.

On February 18, the Carter Center announced that the former president had decided to decline ‘additional medical intervention’ and transition to end-of-life care at home after a series of brief hospitalizations. The statement did not provide details on the health conditions that led to those hospital visits.

Carter lived for over a year after this decision, passing away at the age of 100.

With his death, there are now only five living U.S. presidents: Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, President-elect Donald Trump, and current President Joe Biden.

Though Carter faced several health challenges, he remained relatively active for a man in his 90s, continuing his work with Habitat for Humanity well into his later years.

In August 2015, he was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma, and a small cancerous mass was removed from his liver. The cancer also spread to his brain.

About six months later, Carter announced that he required no further treatment, as an experimental drug had successfully eliminated all signs of cancer.

In 2019, at the age of 95, Carter helped build a home in Nashville for Habitat for Humanity.

Only a few former presidents have lived past 90, including Ronald Reagan, Carter’s successor, who lived to 93.

In February, Carter’s grandson Jason shared a tweet about his visit to his grandparents, stating that they ‘are at peace and — as always — their home is full of love.’

The Secret Service also sent a heartfelt message to Carter in February, wishing him well after it was revealed that he was receiving hospice care.

‘Rest easy, Mr. President,’ tweeted Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi after the announcement of Carter’s condition. ‘We will be forever by your side.’

A Navy veteran and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Carter became the 39th U.S. president after defeating Gerald R. Ford in the 1976 election, during a time when the country was still recovering from the Watergate scandal under President Richard Nixon.

Carter served a single term, losing to Republican Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election.

After his presidency, Carter dedicated himself to philanthropy, living a humble life with his wife, four children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Although health issues limited his public appearances in his later years, he remained a quiet yet influential figure in politics at home and, through The Carter Center, in global efforts related to public health and human rights advocacy.

The Carters founded The Carter Center in 1982, two years after Carter’s loss to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election.

While Carter stayed neutral during the Democrats’ 2020 presidential primary, he received visits and calls from multiple candidates.

He and Rosalynn recorded audio addresses for the Democrats’ virtual national convention, urging the election of Joe Biden, who had been a young senator from Delaware when Carter won the presidency in 1976.

‘Joe Biden was my first and most effective supporter in the Senate,’ Carter said during his 2020 address. ‘For decades, he’s been my loyal and dedicated friend.’

One of the most notable aspects of Carter’s involvement in the 2020 election was The Carter Center’s designation of the U.S. as a ‘backsliding’ democracy. The Center announced it would allocate resources to ensure fair and free elections in the country.

While Carter’s support of Biden over former President Donald Trump was not unexpected for a Democratic former president, it did contradict one of his recent reflections on age and the presidency.

Just weeks before turning 95, Carter joked about the advanced ages of some presidential candidates. ‘I hope there’s an age limit,’ he said jokingly at a town hall when asked if he’d run again.

Then, he became more serious: ‘If I were just 80 years old, if I was 15 years younger, I don’t believe I could undertake the duties I experienced when I was president.’

In February, the announcement of Carter’s condition came just one day after a building at the U.S. Naval Academy was renamed in his honor. 

Previously named after a Confederate Navy leader, the building was renamed in recognition of Carter, a 1946 graduate of the academy.

The renaming followed a decision by a commission mandated by Congress, which determined that several military assets across all branches of the service needed to be renamed due to their Confederate ties.

The building formerly known as Maury Hall was constructed and named in the early 1900s after Matthew Fontaine Maury, a naval officer and scientist who served in the Confederate Navy.

The Naval Academy’s superintendent’s house and a nearby road are named after Franklin Buchanan, the academy’s first superintendent, who also joined the Confederate Navy at the start of the Civil War.

Both the house and the road will be renamed, although those changes have yet to be announced.

Carter did not attend the renaming ceremony, though some of his relatives were present.

‘It would be impossible to overstate what this Academy and the Navy have meant to my grandfather, and by extension to my family,’ said Josh Carter, Jimmy Carter’s grandson, in a statement from the Navy following the renaming.

Friends and admirers of Carter, who served as president from 1977 to 1981, sent their well wishes in honor of his life and legacy.

Born on October 1, 1924, as James Earl Carter Jr., Carter was raised during the Great Depression. 

The son of a Georgia peanut farmer, he credited his upbringing with the influence of farming, political discussions, and his deep commitment to the Baptist faith.

Carter graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1946 and married Rosalynn Smith shortly thereafter. 

The couple had three sons — John William (Jack), James Earl III (Chip), Donnel Jeffrey (Jeff) — and a daughter, Amy Lynn. They also had 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. Tragically, their grandson Jeremy Davis Carter passed away at the age of 28 in 2015 from a heart attack.

Rosalynn Carter passed away on Sunday, November 19, at 2:10 p.m. at their home in Plains, Georgia. 

A passionate advocate for mental health, caregiving, and women’s rights, she died peacefully with family by her side. The Carter Center’s statement on her passing read, ‘She died peacefully, with family by her side.’

Rosalynn Carter was honored with a wreath-laying ceremony at the medical center named in her honor in Americus, Georgia, followed by her casket lying in repose at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta.

He reportedly slept at the health center overnight to be as close to his wife as possible. 

The following day, on November 28, 2023, U.S. leaders and politicians gathered with Jimmy Carter for her funeral at Glenn Memorial Church in Atlanta. 

Among those in attendance were President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, former President Bill Clinton and former First Lady Hillary Clinton, as well as past first ladies Melania Trump, Michelle Obama, and Laura Bush.

On November 29, the Carter family held a more private service for Rosalynn at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, where former President Carter attended in a wheelchair.

Before entering politics, Jimmy Carter served seven years as a Naval officer. He returned to Georgia in 1962, where he began his political career. In 1970, he was elected governor of Georgia.

He launched his presidential campaign in 1974 and built significant momentum over the following two years.

During his presidency, Carter established two new cabinet-level departments: the Department of Energy and the Department of Education. 

He also installed solar panels on the White House roof, which were later removed by President Ronald Reagan.

Carter became a leading advocate for human rights both during and after his presidency, and his work on the Camp David Accords in 1978 between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat is one of his defining achievements. 

His presidency also saw the beginning of the Iran hostage crisis and the first steps toward energy independence for the U.S.

Carter’s decision to authorize a military rescue mission for the hostages in Iran in 1980 contributed to his loss in the reelection campaign later that year.

In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work through the Carter Center, which he founded to promote human rights and global peace.

In his post-presidency years, Carter devoted time to building homes with Habitat for Humanity and authored more than two dozen books.

Two years after being diagnosed with cancer in 2015, Carter was hospitalized for dehydration while building homes in Canada.

He was back at the work site the next day.

Carter has also traveled the world for elections and worked with the Carter Center to eradicate diseases.

His Center began to work toward the eradication of Guinea worm disease in 1986, when 3.5 million people were afflicted. In 2022, only 54 were diagnosed, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

And in Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Guatemala, the Center established a river blindness eradication program, which helped eliminate the condition.