Six days of funeral events are under way for the former US president Jimmy Carter.
The 100-year-old Democrat, who served one term in office from 1977 to 1981, died at his home in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family on 29 December. He was the oldest living former US president.
A motorcade with his flag-draped coffin set off from the Phoebe Sumter Medical Centre in Americus, where ex-Secret Service agents who protected him served as pallbearers and walked alongside the hearse as it left the campus.
Image: Former Secret Service agents assigned to protect Jimmy Carter carry his coffin to a hearse. Pic: AP
His family, including his four children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, accompanied him in a procession that took his body through Plains and past his boyhood home on his family farm in nearby Archery.
Image: Members of the National Park Service watch as the hearse passes through Jimmy Carter’s boyhood farm in Archery, Georgia. Pic: Reuters
There, the National Park Service rang the old farm bell 39 times to honour his time as the 39th president.
People lined the procession route in central Plains, near the train depot where Mr Carter had his presidential campaign headquarters.
Image: Crowds watch the hearse leaving Phoebe Sumter Medical Centre in Americus, Georgia. Pic: AP
Some carried bouquets of flowers or wore commemorative pins with Mr Carter’s photo.
“We want to pay our respects,” said Will Porter Shelbrock, 12, who was born more than three decades after Mr Carter left the White House in 1981.
“He was ahead of his time on what he tried to do and tried to accomplish.”
The motorcade made its way to Atlanta, where there was a moment of silence in front of the Georgia Capitol and later a ceremony was due to take place at the Carter Presidential Centre.
His body will remain there until Tuesday, when he will be flown to Washington DC to lie in state at the US Capitol.
Jimmy Carter was clearly good with people… and that’s how he will be remembered
I came across Jimmy Carter’s Secret Service agents in Edinburgh in the early 1990s when the former US president turned up as a tourist in town. I was working at STV at the time.
He used to travel the world with his wife Rosalynn Carter. It was one of their passions along with fly fishing and skiing. They had shared interests and that was the secret of their enduring 77-year-old marriage.
He popped into the Lord Provost’s office in Edinburgh and he wanted it to be very much a hush-hush occasion. But he thought that as a courtesy he should drop into the city chambers in the heart of town.
The Lord Provost, who was very publicity attuned at the time, couldn’t help himself and made a call to our newsroom and said: ‘Look, I’ve got Jimmy Carter, the ex-president, in the office, if you can get here in the next 10 minutes you might have a word’.
So we duly headed up to the building and there he was. The 39th president of the United States with his Security Service detail.
You saw the faces of the Secret Service, Jimmy Carter and wife drop when a TV crew turned up – they didn’t want the publicity, didn’t want the attention – they wanted to be tourists, private tourists in town under the radar.
But to his credit, Jimmy Carter saw us, looked beyond his Secret Service agents, and said ‘a few questions, fine, just don’t crowd us’.
He didn’t want fuss, he didn’t want to create further attention but he had it in him to accommodate us and answer our questions and it was good.
It was a nice news story for us on the day and a pleasant interaction with a very genial man, a genial individual who had occupied the highest office in the land but was clearly good with people, took time with people and I think that’s how he is remembered.
His state funeral begins on Thursday at 10am at Washington National Cathedral, followed by a return to Plains for an invitation-only funeral at Maranatha Baptist Church.
He will be buried near his home, next to his late wife Rosalynn Carter, who died in November 2023.
Image: Pic: AP
They were both born in Plains and lived most of their lives in and around the city, apart from Mr Carter’s navy career and his terms as Georgia governor and president.
Last year, on his 100th birthday, Mr Carter received a private congratulatory message from the King, expressing admiration for his life of public service.
Image: Jimmy Carter’s coffin passes his boyhood farm in Archery, Georgia. Pic: Reuters
Mr Carter became president when he defeated former president Gerald Ford in 1976.
The Georgia native and former peanut farmer was later beaten by Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.
The final year of Mr Carter’s administration was dominated by a hostage crisis in Iran, when 52 Americans were taken captive at the US embassy in November 1979.
Image: Pic: Reuters
On the day he left office, 20 January 1981, the hostages were released. Mr Carter had continued negotiations behind the scenes, even after his election defeat.
In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to avoid conflict around the world.
Mr Carter conducted diplomatic missions into his 80s and was involved in building houses for the poor well into his 90s.
Following his death, former president Bill Clinton and his wife, the ex-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, led tributes to Mr Carter, who they first met during his campaign in 1975, giving “thanks for his long, good life”.
“Guided by his faith, President Carter lived to serve others – until the very end,” they said in a statement.
White House incumbent Joe Biden said: “Today, America and the world lost an extraordinary leader, statesman, and humanitarian.”
President-elect Donald Trump said the challenges Mr Carter faced as president “came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans”.
“For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude,” he said in a statement.
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