In a few days, Jimmy Carter will be celebrated in a towering cathedral in Washington by fellow American presidents, noted humanitarians and other world leaders.

But before all of that, a hearse carrying the remains of Mr. Carter, the nation’s 39th president, paused on Saturday outside a farmhouse in Georgia. There, he raised chickens, helped his father tend to peanut crops and began a seemingly improbable, century-long journey that vaulted him from Plains, Ga., to the heights of political influence and along a globe-trotting mission to eradicate disease and protect democracy.

It was the first stop in a valedictory trek tracing the scope of a lengthy and varied life. The trek, like his life, began and will end in a patch of rural Georgia, where he was born and raised and where he died on Dec. 29 at 100.

In the days ahead, the series of memorial events will incorporate a discussion of the impression that Mr. Carter made on the world, including the legacy he left after a single term in the White House and a post-presidential life that also came to define him.

On Saturday, the journey began with a recognition of the places and people who had been instrumental in shaping him.