Six days of funeral observances for former US President Jimmy Carter begin on Saturday, January 4 in Georgia, where he died on December 29, 2024 at the age of 100. Here is what to know about the initial ceremonies and what happens next.
The proceedings began at 10:15 am EST on Saturday, January 4, with the Carter family arriving at Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus, Georgia. Former Secret Service agents who protected Carter served as pallbearers, walking alongside the hearse as it exited the campus on its way to Plains.
The motorcade will move through downtown Plains, which spans just a few blocks, passing near the childhood home of first lady Rosalynn Smith Carter, who died in November 2023 at the age of 96, and near where the couple operated the family peanut warehouses. The route also includes the old train depot that served as Jimmy Carter's 1976 presidential campaign headquarters and the gas station once run by Carter's younger brother Billy.
The motorcade will then pass by the Methodist church where the Carters married in 1946, and the home where they lived and died. The former president will be buried there alongside Rosalynn.
The military-run schedule calls for a 10:50 am stop in front of Carter's family farm and boyhood home in Archery, outside Plains, after passing the cemetery where the former president's parents, James Earl Carter Sr. and Lillian Carter, are buried. The farm now is part of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park. The National Park Service will ring the old farm bell 39 times to honor the 39th president.
From Archery, the motorcade will head north to Atlanta and will stop at 3 pm outside the Georgia Capitol, where Carter served as a state senator from 1963 to 1967 and governor from 1971 to 1975. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens will lead a moment of silence.
The motorcade then is scheduled to arrive at the Carter Presidential Center at 3:45 pm, with a private service at 4 pm. The campus includes Carter's presidential library and The Carter Center, established by the former president and first lady in 1982.
From 7 pm Saturday through 6 am Monday, Carter will lie in repose for the public to pay respects around the clock. The ceremony is expected to include some of The Carter Center's global staff of 3,000.
Carter's remains will travel next to Washington, where he will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda until his funeral at 10 am Thursday at the Washington National Cathedral. All the living presidents have been invited, and Joe Biden, a Carter ally, will deliver a eulogy.
The Carter family then will return to bury its patriarch in Plains after a private hometown funeral at 3:45 pm at Maranatha Baptist Church, where Carter, a devout evangelical, taught Sunday School for decades. Carter will be buried afterward in a private graveside service, in a plot visible from the front porch of his home.