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.
See it: Carter’s procession heads to Atlanta
Mourners place flowers, flags at the Carter Presidential Center
Mourners are leaving flowers, flags and messages of support at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, where the 39th president’s hearse will soon arrive.
Carter’s hearse arrives in Atlanta
Former president Jimmy Carter’s hearse has arrived in Atlanta, Georgia after a four-hour-long journey from his hometown of Plains.
Governor Brian Kemp, along with other state leaders, will be in the state capital to mourn the 39th president.
“Marty, the girls, and I join all Georgians and the entire nation in mourning the loss of former President Jimmy Carter,” Kemp said after Carter’s passing. “As the only American president thus far to come from Georgia, he showed the world the impact our state and its people have on the country. And as a son of Plains, he always valued Georgians and the virtues of our state, choosing to return to his rural home after his time in public office.”
Carter’s family mourns 39th president outside of State Capitol in Atlanta
Former president Jimmy Carter’s family and state lawmakers have gathered outside the Georgia State Capitol to pay their respects to the 39th president.
Carter’s private memorial begins
President Jimmy Carter’s private memorial at the Carter Presidential Center has begun.
“We’ll have many chances this week to pay tribute to my grandfather, but it was important for all of us that we stop here,” the former president’s grandson Jason Carter said of the Center.
“These buildings, as you all know, are filled with his life, not just because this is a museum to his life, and not just because there’s a collection here of his beloved paintings, but his spirit fills this place, and the real reason that this spirit fills this place is because of the people who are standing here, the people in this room from the library and the museum and the Carter Center itself.”
President Carter’s son speaks at memorial
Former president Jimmy Carter’s son, James “Chip” Carter, spoke at his private memorial at the Carter Presidential Center.
“I’m so proud of Jason for accepting to be our family member on the Board,” James said of Jason Carter, the 39th president’s grandson.
“We’re trusting him with my father’s legacy now so no pressure,” Jack said, eliciting a laugh from the crowd.
He went on to tell a story about how Carter helped him learn Latin after he failed his final exam in the class.
“[My father] came into my room and said, we were on Christmas vacation, he said, ‘You have your Latin book?’...When he came home that night, we spent an hour and a half, him teaching me Latin that he had learned from my book that day,” James said.
“He did that every day of Christmas vacation, and the first day of the school year after Christmas, I went to my teacher and asked her if she’d let me take the final over again that she’d given us the midterm test,” he continued. “And she said yes. So after school that day, I took that test, and I made 100.”
“I owed it to my father who spent that kind of time with me.”
Jimmy Carter to lie in repose until Tuesday
Former president Jimmy Carter will lie in repose in Atlanta, Georgia until Tuesday morning at 6 a.m. local time, when his casket will begin its journey to Washington, DC.
The Independent’s live blog coverage will resume January 7.
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