Washington and then tiny Plains, Georgia, said goodbye to former President Jimmy Carter Thursday.
First, President Joe Biden honored him at a state funeral in the nation’s capital, remembering his longtime friend as a man of character and a patriot who “showed us what it means to be a practitioner of good works and a good and faithful servant of God and of the people.”
“To young people — to anyone — in search of meaning and purpose, study the power of Jimmy Carter’s example. I miss him,” Biden said moments before gently placing his hand on Carter’s flag-draped casket.
The nation’s 39th president and a former Georgia governor, Carter died on Dec. 29 after nearly two years in home hospice care. Carter, the only Georgian ever elected to the White House, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for advancing peace, democracy and human rights.
Biden eulogized Carter on the final day of a nearly weeklong series of memorial events that began and ended in southwest Georgia. From Plains to Atlanta to the U.S. Capitol and back, Carter’s final journey featured sharply contrasting themes from his 100 years on the planet.
The first of his two funeral services was held in the nation’s capital, where Carter served as president from January 1977 to January 1981. His second funeral service took place in his tiny hometown Plains, where he lived for decades in the same modest ranch-style house with former first lady Rosalynn Carter until she died in 2023.
Friends and family praised Carter at Washington National Cathedral, an English Gothic house of worship with flying buttresses, pinnacles and vaulted ceilings. Later Thursday, Carter was memorialized at the much smaller Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains. The former president taught Sunday school there for decades and even mowed the grass.
Among the hundreds of mourners who attended the service at the cathedral were former presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama; President-elect Donald Trump; and world leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The private service at Carter’s church in Plains accommodated far fewer people, including relatives and friends who may be less famous but who were no less dear to the former president.
The memorial events started in the morning at the U.S. Capitol, where Carter lay in state. Accompanied by a U.S. military honor guard, his remains sat atop a platform that was built in 1865 to support Abraham Lincoln’s casket.
“Hail to the Chief” was performed as Carter’s casket was carried to a hearse for the drive to the cathedral. Completed in 1990, it also has hosted state funerals for other presidents, including Gerald Ford. Carter befriended Ford after defeating him in the 1976 election. At the cathedral this afternoon, Ford’s son, Steven, read a eulogy written by the late Republican president.
“As for myself, Jimmy, I am looking forward to our reunion. We have much to catch up on,” Steven Ford recited from his father’s tribute. “Thank you, Mr. President. Welcome home, old friend.”
Country music stars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood performed “Imagine,” John Lennon’s song about a utopian world.
Andrew Young, Carter’s ambassador to the United Nations, read Scripture before calling Carter “something of a miracle.”
“I don’t mean this with any disrespect, but it is still hard for me to understand how you could get to be president from Plains, Georgia,” said Young, also a former congressman and Atlanta mayor. “I have known President Carter for more than half of my life. And I never ceased to be surprised, I never ceased to be enlightened, I never ceased to be inspired by the little deeds of love and mercy that he shared with us every day of his life.”
Other speakers included Ted Mondale, the son of the late former Vice President Walter Mondale; Stuart Eizenstat, Carter’s chief White House domestic affairs adviser; and Carter’s grandchildren.
Jason Carter said his grandparents were “small-town people who never forgot who they were and where they were from, no matter what happened in their lives.” Driving home his point, he vividly described their home in Plains, joking “it looks like they might have built it themselves.” His grandfather, he added, “was likely to show up at the door in some 70s short-shorts and Crocs.”
“It was like thousands of other grandparents’ houses all across the South. Fishing trophies on the walls. The refrigerator, of course, was papered with pictures of grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” Jason Carter said. “And demonstrating their Depression-era roots, they had a little rack next to the sink where they would hang Ziploc bags to dry.”
Many gathered at Plains High School to watch a livestream of the proceedings at the cathedral. In 1941, Carter graduated from the school, now part of Jimmy Carter National Historical Park.
Outside, Maria Iracheta and a friend staked out a spot along the processional route, planting their lawn chairs. They drove up from Panama City early in the morning.
“He comes from this humble area and made himself governor, then president, then all of the stuff he did after the presidency,” Iracheta said. “He never stopped working.”
Just before 5:30 p.m., uniformed troops escorted Carter’s casket into Maranatha Baptist Church for his second funeral service of the day. As the former president’s family watched from the front row, Pastor Ashley Guthas led the mourners in prayer. She called him a “gifted poet, a neighbor in this tiny peanut-loving town of Plains and a global peacemaker.”
“Though our stories and proximity differ,” she said, “we are here because we have been impacted by the earthly presence of this remarkable human, a leader who used his power not for selfish gain but humbly in service of all.”
Moments later, Carter’s personal pastor, the Rev. Tony Lowden, prayed for God to comfort the former’s president’s family and friends.
“I believe it is only fitting that his transition into Heaven coincides with a pivotal transition taking place in our nation today, right before we swear in Congress, right before we have an inauguration and right before we get an opportunity to pick a new governor,” Lowden said. “President Carter has given us a lesson today on faith and hope to be the guardrails of our democracy, the guardrails of everything that we do.”
It was already dark by the time Carter’s hearse pulled away from the church and headed to his modest home, where the former president was to be buried next to his beloved wife of 77 years.
AJC staff writers Patricia Murphy, Tia Mitchell and Alexis Stevens contributed to this report.
