Jimmy Carter funeral updates: Former president’s casket driven to Atlanta for three days of public mourning
President Jimmy Carter will be honored throughout Georgia to begin his six-day funeral schedule
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Your support makes all the difference.President Jimmy Carter’s hearse arrived in Atlanta Saturday afternoon after his six-day funeral schedule began that morning.
Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and peanut farm operator who became the 39th president of the United States, died at his home in Plains, Georgia, last week at 100 years old.
The procession began at the Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus, Georgia, where former and current Secret Service agents assigned to Carter’s Protective Division carried his remains to a hearse. His motorcade then passed through his hometown of Plains. After a stop at his childhood home and a four-hour journey, his procession arrived in Atlanta on Saturday afternoon.
Following a moment of silence at the State Capitol, the former president was honored at the Carter Presidential Center in a private memorial service.
Now, he will lie in repose until early Tuesday, when his body will be flown to Washington, D.C. There, he will lie in state at the Capitol Rotunda.
His national funeral will be held at the National Cathedral on January 9, which President Joe Biden marked as a national day of mourning and has called on U.S. citizens to assemble “in their respective places of worship” to pay homage to the former president.
Houses of Parliament and No.10 fly British flags at half-staff in honor of Carter
Wall Street to close on Jan. 9
The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq will be closed on January 9, 2025 after President Joe Biden declared a national day of mourning for Jimmy Carter after the former president died at the age of 100 on Sunday.
“Jimmy Carter, with humble roots as a farmer and family man, devoted his life to public service and defending our freedom,” Lynn Martin, President of NYSE Group, said in a statement on Monday.
“During his noteworthy post-presidential life, President Carter left an enduring legacy of humanitarianism. The NYSE will respectfully honor President Carter’s lifetime of service to our nation by closing our markets on the National Day of Mourning.”
In focus: Carter’s father was a white supremacist, but a black farmhand gave him faith and purpose
For decades after he was crushed in the 1980 presidential election, Jimmy Carter was defined as a loser. But, by any standard, he won at life. He was the longest-living American president, the longest married (77 years, and happily), and – especially if you look at his whole career – among the most accomplished and productive figures of our era.
Now it’s time for the public to reassess this inspiring, complex, and confounding man. When I first began researching his epic American life in 2015, I was struck by the ubiquity of the easy shorthand on him – bad president; great former president. Even now, everyone from political scientists to the average person on the street will express this idea as if it’s an established fact. The problem is, the widespread conventional wisdom on Carter is mostly wrong.
Carter’s his biographer Jonathan Alter takes a look at the extraordinary life and achievements of the former president.
Jimmy Carter: Born to a white supremacist, but raised by a black farmhand
A complex and confounding man, says his biographer, Jonathan Alter, who looks at the extraordinary life and achievements of this misunderstood American president and the people who shaped him
Eulogy from former president Gerald Ford will be read at funeral
A eulogy, written for Carter by former president Gerald R. Ford, will be read at Carter’s funeral, according to the New York Times.
Ford, who Carter defeated in the 1976 presidential election, became a close friend to Carter after the election. Ford died in 2006 at the age of 93. His son, Steven Ford, is expected to read his eulogy to Carter.
Another political, former vice president Walter F. Mondale – who served as VP for Carter – also wrote a eulogy for Carter. Mondale died in 2021 at the age of 93. His son, Ted Mondale, will read the eulogy for Carter.
Biden signs executive order closing government January 9
President Joe Biden has officially signed the executive order that will effectively close the government on January 9, the day he has declared the national day of mourning for former president Jimmy Carter.
Departments related to national security, defense or other public needs can remain functioning.
Carter’s niece says he was ‘one of a kind'
Carter’s niece, Kim Fuller, said her uncle was “one of a kind” and that it’s unlikely the world will ever get another person like him, in an interview with ABC News.
“I think that Uncle Jimmy was one of a kind,” Fuller said.
Fuller said her uncle lived his life for others before himself.
“I have hopes that maybe one day somebody’s going to show up like him,” Fuller said.
Delta airlines shares
Carter will be remembered for his commitment to humanitarian services and kindness toward people. Delta Airlines shared their fond memories of the former president with a video showing Carter shaking hands with each passenger on board.
“Every time Jimmy Carter flew Delta, he shook hands with each person on the plane. Because that’s who he was. Someone who treated people as people,” Delta wrote
Carter insisted on no funeral train procession
Carter specifically requested that his body not be transported by train from Washington D.C. to Georgia, once telling a staffer, “if you take my cold, dead body across the U.S. by train, I’ll haunt you until the day you die.”
In the past, some presidents have traveled from Washington D.C. to their place of rest by train, allowing people all across the U.S. to pay their respects. George H.W. Bush’s family did this in 2018.
But Cater was adamant this not be his situation, according to the New York Times. Instead, his body will be transported by military flight.
Carter often volunteered with Habitat for Humanity after leaving White House
He was the oldest living president and had been out of the White House for more than 35 years, but Jimmy Carter never stopped working to improve the lives of others — much of which included building homes.
Even well into his 90s, Carter put on a hard hat and volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, the nonprofit organization he often partnered with through The Carter Center.
The one-term president — who died Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia — worked alongside 103,000 volunteers in 14 countries to build, renovate and repair 4,331 homes with Habitat for Humanity for more than 35 years. Often, Carter and his late wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter, volunteered together.
The couple first participated in a Habitat for Humanity project in 1984 in New York City. Carter discovered the organization while on a run. He recalled that he passed by a building and thought, “Rosalynn and I should come up and give them a hand.”
“When we left the White House, we could have done anything,” Carter once said. “But our choice was to volunteer as Habitat workers, and that’s been a life-changing experience for us.”
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