Jimmy Carter’s six-day state funeral begins with procession through Georgia

Six days of funeral events are underway for former US president Jimmy Carter.

The 100-year-old Democrat, who served one term from 1977 to 1981, died at his home in Plains, Georgiasurrounded by his family on December 29. He was the oldest living former US president.

A motorcade carrying his flag-draped casket left Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus, where former Secret Service agents who protected him served as pallbearers and walked alongside the hearse as it left campus.

His family, including his four children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, accompanied him in a procession that carried his body through the Plains and past his childhood home on the waterfront farm in nearby Archery.

There, the National Park Service rang the old farmhouse bell 39 times to honor his term as the 39th president.

People lined the procession route in downtown Plains, near the train station where Carter had his presidential campaign headquarters.

Some carried bouquets of flowers or wore commemorative pins with Carter’s photograph.

“We want to pay our respects,” said 12-year-old Will Porter Shelbrock, who was born more than three decades after Carter left the White House in 1981.

“He was ahead of his time in what he tried to do and what he tried to achieve.”

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Tributes to the ‘extraordinary leader’

The motorcade was headed to Atlanta, where there will be a moment of silence in front of the Georgia Capitol and a ceremony at the Carter Presidential Center.

His body will remain there until Tuesday, when it will be flown to Washington DC to remain in the US Capitol.

His state funeral begins Thursday at 10 a.m. at Washington National Cathedral, followed by a return to Plains for an invitation-only funeral at Maranatha Baptist Church.

He will be buried near his home, next to his late wife Rosalynn Carter, who died in November 2023.

Both were born in Plains and lived most of their lives in and around the city, aside from Carter’s naval career and his terms as governor and president of Georgia.

Last year, on his 100th birthday, Carter received a private message of congratulations from the kingexpressing admiration for his life of public service.

Carter became president when he defeated former President Gerald Ford in 1976.

The Georgia native and former peanut farmer was later defeated by Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.

The final year of the Carter administration was dominated by a hostage crisis in Iran, when 52 Americans were taken captive at the US embassy in November 1979.

The day he left office, January 20, 1981, the hostages were freed. Carter had continued negotiations behind the scenes even after his election defeat.

In 2002 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to prevent conflicts around the world.

Carter carried out diplomatic missions until he was 80 years old and participated in building houses for the poor until he was 90 years old.

After his death, the former president clinton bill and his wife, the former presidential candidate Hillary Clintonled tributes to Carter, whom they first met during his campaign in 1975, giving “thanks for his long and good life.”

“Guided by his faith, President Carter lived to serve others, until the end,” they said in a statement.

head of the White House joe biden said: “Today, America and the world lost an extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian.”

president-elect donald trump He said the challenges Carter faced as president “came at a crucial time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans.”

“For this reason, we all owe him a debt of gratitude,” he said in a statement.