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.
Voices: Jimmy Carter brokered peace in the Middle East – then triggered his greatest failure
“The Carter administration did, however, notch up one diplomatic success, which might have gained more recognition without what happened next. The success came with the Camp David accords that were signed in September 1978; that is a third of the way through his term, and constituted a diplomatic breakthrough of the first order.”
Mary Dejevsky writes:
Jimmy Carter brokered peace in the Middle East – then triggered his greatest failure
The one-term president’s humiliation by Iranian revolutionaries kicked off a decades-long American grudge, Mary Dejevsky writes
Jimmy Carter made eradicating Guinea worm disease a top mission
Noble Prize-winning peacemaker Jimmy Carter spent nearly four decades waging war to eliminate an ancient parasite plaguing the world’s poorest people.
Rarely fatal but searingly painful and debilitating, Guinea worm disease infects people who drink water tainted with larvae that grow inside the body into worms as much as 3-feet-long. The noodle-thin parasites then burrow their way out, breaking through the skin in burning blisters.
Carter made eradicating Guinea worm a top mission of The Carter Center, the nonprofit he and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, founded after leaving the White House. The former president rallied public health experts, billionaire donors, African heads of state and thousands of volunteer villagers to work toward eliminating a human disease for only the second time in history.
Carter’s presidency was marked by turmoil
Carter was full of ambition at the start of his presidency but beset with problems from the start.
The presidency was weighed down by multiple crises. In the 1970s, the economy struggled with a rare combination of simultaneous inflation and recession, an oil shortage sent gas prices soaring and the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, derailing negotiations for an important arms treaty.
Notably, in a struggle that lasted almost as long as his presidency, Carter fought over an energy program that was structured to make fuel expensive enough that consumers would be encouraged to conserve it.
The crisis required Carter to address the nation multiple times in 1979.
“In order to control energy price, production, and distribution, the Federal bureaucracy and red tape have become so complicated, it is almost unbelievable. Energy prices are high, and they’re going higher, no matter what we do,” he said in an April 1979 speech.
Editorial: America – and Donald Trump – have much to learn from the life and service of Jimmy Carter
“The contrast between the peanut farmer and the mogul could not be more different as the US marks the passing of its most humble president – and braces for the return of its most divisive”
America – and Trump – have much to learn from the life and service of Jimmy Carter
Editorial: The contrast between the peanut farmer and the mogul could not be more different as the US marks the passing of its most humble president – and braces for the return of its most divisive
President Jimmy Carter’s funeral begins today
President Jimmy Carter’s multi-day funeral schedule begins this morning, at 10:15 a.m. Eastern Time.
Former and current Secret Service agents assigned to Carter’s detail will carry his remains to a hearse this morning in Americus, Georgia.
From there, the motorcade will travel to his childhood home in Plains before heading toward Atlanta.
In the state’s capital, the former president will be taken to the Carter Presidential Center, where he will lie in repose until early Tuesday.
Watch live: Jimmy Carter’s casket travels from medical center in Americus to Atlanta
President Jimmy Carter’s full funeral schedule today
President Jimmy Carter’s multi-day funeral service begins this morning.
10:15 a.m. Current and former Secret Service agents assigned to Carter’s Protective Division will carry the former president’s remains to the hearse and walk alongside it as the motorcade leaves toward his hometown of Plains.
10:50 a.m. After passing through Plains, the motorcade will pause in front Carter’s boyhood farm. There, the National Park Service will salute Carter and ring the historic farm bell 39 times.
10:55 a.m. Carter begins his journey to Atlanta.
3 p.m. Governor Brian Kemp, Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, members of the Georgia Legislature, and Georgia State Patrol troopers will lead a moment of silence for Carter.
Then, Carter’s remains will be taken to the Carter Presidential Center.
3:45 p.m. The Carter Presidential Center hosts an arrival ceremony.
4 p.m. A private funeral service in the lobby of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum.
7 p.m. Carter will lie in repose for the public to pay their respects until early Tuesday.
In pictures: Mourners gather to pay their respects as Carter’s funeral services begin
Motorcade arrives at Phoebe Sumter Medical Center
President Jimmy Carter’s motorcade has arrived at Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus, Georgia.
Any moment now, former and current Secret Service agents assigned to the Carter Protective Division will transport the former president’s remains to the hearse.
Carter’s remains transferred to hearse
Former and current Secret Service agents assigned to the Carter Protective Division have transported the 39th president’s remains to the hearse.
Now, Carter’s remains will pass through his hometown, Plains.
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