Six carefully choreographed days of funeral events in honor of got underway on Saturday, starting in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.
Carter, who died on December 29 aged 100, and went on to become the longest-lived commander-in-chief.
The began with a procession through the small town of Plains. Secret Service agents from his current and former protective details carried Carter’s coffin, draped in an American flag, to a hearse.
Mourners gathered along the roadside to say their goodbyes, many saluting the motorcade as it made its way past Carter’s boyhood family peanut farm, where a bell was rung 39 times in honor of the country’s 39th president.
“He was a man that didn’t walk around proud; he was an everyday normal person,” local resident William Brown, 71, told the AFP news agency in Plains. “We’re going to miss him.”
Meanwhile, flags were flown at half-mast across the United States as well as at US embassies around the world, and tributes were paid at major sporting and cultural events.
From Georgia to Washington
Later on Saturday, Carter’s body was set to be driven to Atlanta for a moment of silence at the Georgia State Capitol, where Carter served as a state senator before becoming governor.
After lying in repose at the Carter Presidential Center overnight, allowing members of the public to pay their respects, Carter’s body will be flown to and then driven to the US Navy Memorial — a nod to Carter’s graduation from the United States Naval Academy in 1946 and his subsequent submarine service.
From there, another funeral procession will accompany the casket to the US Capitol, where the former president will lie in state until Thursday morning, surrounded by a military guard of honor.
Carter will be the 13th former US president to lie in state in the Capitol. The first was Abraham Lincoln, following his assassination in 1865.
The route taken by Carter’s body has been designed to reflect his rise from his rural, southern roots to the global stage, where in addition to serving as US president, he was also awarded the in 2002.
His official state funeral is at 10 a.m. on Thursday at Washington National Cathedral, after which the body will return to Plains for a private funeral at Maranatha Baptist Church.
He will be buried near his home, next to his wife, Rosalynn Carter.
mf/sms (AP, AFP)
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