Mourners are set to begin paying their respects to Jimmy Carter on Saturday, kicking off a carefully choreographed six-day farewell ceremony for America’s longest-serving president.
Flags have flown at half-staff across the country since Carter’s death Dec. 29 at age 100 in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.
Carter’s state funeral officially begins Saturday with Secret Service agents from his current and former protection team carrying his casket to a hearse for a tour across the Plains.
The procession carrying his remains is scheduled to stop at the Carter family peanut farm, while a farm bell tolls 39 times in honor of the 39th U.S. president.
His body will then be transported to Atlanta for a brief stop at the Georgia Capitol, where Carter served as a state senator before becoming governor, and a moment of silence.
From there, Carter will be escorted to the Carter Presidential Center where he will lie in state from 7 p.m. Saturday (0000 GMT Sunday) until 6 a.m. (1100 GMT) Tuesday to allow the public to pay their respects.
Carter’s remains will be transported Tuesday morning from a military base in Georgia to Joint Base Andrews, near Washington, aboard a US Air Force plane called Special Air Mission 39.
A procession will then transport the body of the former commander in chief to the US Navy memorial.
Carter, who attended the U.S. Naval Academy, graduated in 1946 and served on submarines, will be transferred from a hearse to a horse-drawn caisson for a funeral procession to the U.S. Capitol.
Military pallbearers will carry his flag-draped casket to the Capitol Rotunda where his body will lie in state until 7 a.m. (1200 GMT) on Thursday, surrounded by an honor guard of military personnel.
Carter will be the 13th former U.S. president to deliver his remarks on Capitol Hill. Abraham Lincoln, assassinated in 1865, was the first.
A state funeral will be held Thursday at the National Cathedral, an Episcopal church in the nation’s capital that also hosted the state funerals of former Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and George HW Bush.
All four living former presidents – Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump – are expected to attend.
President Joe Biden will deliver the eulogy for his fellow Democrat, who served in the White House from 1977 to 1981.
Biden declared Thursday a national day of mourning and federal government offices must be closed for the day.
He also ordered that flags be flown at half-staff for 30 days, as is customary, meaning that will be the case during Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
This angered the president-elect, who told Truth Social that “no American can be happy” about having flags at half-staff when he takes office.
Following the cathedral service, Carter’s remains will be flown aboard Special Air Mission 39 to Georgia for a private funeral service at the Plains Baptist Church where Carter taught Sunday school.
A final procession through his hometown will carry Carter’s body to a burial site at his residence.
US Navy aircraft will fly over in his honor before he lies next to his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn, who died in 2023 at the age of 96.