Jimmy Carter’s state funeral has begun. Here’s what you need to know

ATLANTA, GEORGIA —

Six days of funerals for former President Jimmy Carter began Saturday in Georgia, where he died Dec. 29 at age 100.

The opening events reflect Carter’s political rise, from the small town of Plains, Georgia, to decades on the world stage as a humanitarian and defender of democracy.

Here’s what you need to know about the initial ceremonies and what happens next:

This launch honors Carter’s deep roots in rural southern Georgia

Procedures began at 10:15 a.m. local time Saturday with the Carter family arriving at Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus.

Former Secret Service agents who protected Carter served as pallbearers, walking alongside the hearse as it left campus toward Plains.

James Earl Carter Jr. lived more than 80 of his 100 years in and around the city, which still has a population of fewer than 700, far more than when he was born on October 1, 1924. Some other modern presidents – Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton also grew up in small towns, but Carter stands out for returning and staying in his hometown for the duration of his presidency.

The procession wound through downtown Plains, which spans only a few blocks, passing near the childhood home of former first lady Rosalynn Smith Carter, who died in November 2023 at the age of 96 years old, and near where the couple operated the family peanut warehouses. The route also included the old railroad depot that served as the headquarters of Jimmy Carter’s 1976 presidential campaign and the gas station once run by Carter’s younger brother, Billy.

The procession passed the Methodist church where the Carters were married in 1946, and the house where they lived and died. The former president will be buried there alongside Rosalynn.

The Carters built the one-story home, now surrounded by Secret Service fencing, before his first Senate campaign in 1962 and lived there their entire lives, except for four years in the governor’s mansion and four others in the White House.

A stop at Carter’s childhood home: a mix of privilege and hard work

After passing through Plains, the procession stopped in front of Carter’s family farm and childhood home in Archer, just outside of town, after passing through the cemetery where the former president’s parents are buried , James Earl Carter Sr. and Lillian Carter.

The farm is now part of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park. The National Park Service rang the old farm bell 39 times to honor the 39th president.

Carter was the first president born in a hospital. But the house had no electricity or running water when he was born, and he worked his father’s land during the Great Depression. Yet the Carters enjoyed relative privilege and status. Earl employed black farming families. The elder Carter also owned a store in Plains and was a local civic and political leader. Lillian was a nurse and she delivered Rosalynn. The property still includes a tennis court that Earl had built for the family.

It was Earl’s death in 1953 that put Jimmy on the path to the Oval Office. The younger Carters had left Plains after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy. But Jimmy gave up a promising career as a submarine officer and an early participant in the Pentagon’s nuclear program to take over the family peanut business after his father’s death. In less than a decade, he was elected to the Georgia State Senate.

Lying in rest in Atlanta, where Carter was a politician and world figure

From Archery, the procession headed north to Atlanta. The military motorcade stopped in front of the Georgia Capitol, where Carter served as a state senator from 1963 to 1967 and governor from 1971 to 1975. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens , observed a minute of silence. While former governors are honored at state funerals, presidents – even if they served as governor – are remembered at national rites hosted by the federal government.

The motorcade then traveled to the Carter Presidential Center, which includes the Carter Presidential Library and the Carter Center, established by the former president and first lady in 1982. Carter’s son, James Earl “Chip” Carter III, and his grandson, Jason Carter, spoke. to an assembly that included many Carter Center employees whose work focused on international diplomacy and mediation, election observation, and fighting disease in developing countries continues to set a standard for what alumni presidents can accomplish.

Jimmy Carter, who presented the center’s annual reports until 2019, won the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize in part for this post-presidential work.

Carter was scheduled to rest from 7 p.m. Saturday to 6 a.m. Tuesday, with the public able to pay their respects 24 hours a day.

And then: a return to Washington

Carter’s remains will then travel to Washington, where he will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda until his funeral at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Washington National Cathedral. All living presidents have been invited and Carter ally Joe Biden will deliver a eulogy. Biden also signed a bill to name a U.S. Postal Service facility in Plains after Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter.

The Carter family will then return to bury their patriarch in Plains after a private hometown funeral at 3:45 p.m. at Maranatha Baptist Church, where Carter, a devout evangelical, taught Sunday school for decades.

Carter will then be buried in a private graveside service, in a plot visible from the front porch of his home.