Jimmy Carter’s final trip begins with procession through rural Georgia

ATLANTA – The nation began its formal farewell to Jimmy Carter on Saturday, as the casket carrying the former president started its journey along the rural roads of south Georgia, where he spent much of his life, and onward to Atlanta, where his body will lie in public repose ahead of a state funeral in Washington next week.

The events marked the first of a multiday celebration of Carter, who died last Sunday at his home in Plains, the tiny town of his childhood and the launchpad for his storied political career. After a painful defeat in the 1980 election that ousted him from the White House, he returned there with wife Rosalynn and reinvented himself as global humanitarian and champion of democracy.

Residents of Plains and admirers from afar turned out to honor him Saturday morning. Carter’s casket emerged shortly after 10:20 a.m. from Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus, about 10 miles from his hometown, where his body had been since his death Dec. 29 at age 100.

Under a crystal-clear sky, Carter’s casket, draped in an American flag, was escorted by current and former members of his Secret Service detail to a waiting hearse. It was a detail the late president had requested to honor those who had protected him and his family over the decades, and who were considered “lifelong friends,” according to memorial organizers.

Watching were several members of the Carter family, including his children, Jack, Chip, Jeff and Amy, in their first public appearance since their father’s death.

Among those observing the ceremony were dozens of hospital employees. The small rural medical facility had treated Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, several times over the years, and the couple were key to the hospital’s rebuilding when it was destroyed by a tornado in 2007.

“If one of them had to be hospitalized, they always wanted a second bed in the room so the other could stay, too,” said Carlyle Walton, CEO of Phoebe Sumter Medical Center.

In a pecan grove opposite the hospital, scores of people had gathered in the cold, craning their heads to catch a glimpse of the procession. Some solemnly held signs thanking Carter, while others waved small American flags. Some wept.

“I told them this is an important, historic moment. This is one of our own, who became president of the United States. And he was a very good man,” said Emily DeVane, who had brought her three children to see Carter’s casket as it passed through Americus.

Like many around town, DeVane had encountered the former president, who was a visible presence in the community. She recalled running into the couple at a restaurant in Plains about eight years ago.

“Here I was, a mom with three small kids, and they were so kind and gracious with us. They invited us to their church,” she recalled. “He was such a humble man. They were wonderful people, and did so much good. He was one of us before he became one for everyone.”

Many stood silently watching the Carter motorcade pass. But as it inched out of Americus, some observers became more vocal.

“Goodbye, Jimmy!” someone shouted.

“We love you, Jimmy!” another yelled. “Thank you, Jimmy!”

The motorcade slowly made its way along Highway 280, through Plains, where it passed an estimated 300 people lining both sides of the old country road.

“He was a genuine human being. And it’s nice to be able to sit here and honor him. He deserves much more than that,” said Tucker Gatier, 27, who was among the first to claim a spot early Saturday along the motorcade route in Plains.

Gatier, from Americus, sat with his wife, Megan, and their 5-year-old twin girls, who wore matching leopard-print coats. Like many, he’d also previously encountered Carter. “He was just another neighbor to people around here,” Gatier said. “I saw him at the Peanut Festival once.”

While the crowd included plenty of locals, some observers had made the journey from afar. Sarah Wollenweber traveled with her 17-year-old son, London, from Bloomington, Illinois, after he had begged his mother to take him to Carter’s hometown to honor his favorite president.

“This was a pilgrimage for him,” Wollenweber said.

London, who said he plans to study political science next year at the University of Illinois at Springfield, said it was an experience he felt he could not miss. “He was certainly our best former president,” London said.

At one point, the procession passed the longtime Carter home, a modest ranch house just off Main Street, where the 39th president and his wife moved after leaving Washington. Rosalynn, who died in 2023 at age 96, is buried on the grounds, and Carter will join her in the family cemetery in a private burial late Thursday.

A few minutes later, the hearse made its way past sweeping farmland to Carter’s boyhood home, where he lived until 1941, when he left for the Naval Academy. The site, which includes a modest wood cabin that has been restored as part of a national park, remains a working farm. Among its crops: peanuts, which were closely aligned with Carter’s political identity as a farmer turned governor and president.

A group of National Park Service rangers and other employees saluted as an old farm bell rang 39 times in honor of the 39th president. The gesture was a nod to Carter’s Depression-era boyhood on the farm. Carter often spoke of how the passing of time there was measured not by clocks but by the clanging of the farm bell.

The motorcade then turned north, detouring off the main highway and driving past pecan groves and cotton fields to pause in several small towns.

Shanon Royal and Cathy Turner, both retired teachers, reminisced with friends about Carter as they waited for his hearse to pass through Ellaville, about 20 miles north of Americus.

“He was the first president we ever voted for,” Royal said. “Everybody around here was excited to have a Georgia peanut farmer in the White House.”

Like so many people in the region, Royal and Turner have personal connections and memories of the extended Carter family, such as going to Billy Carter’s gas station in Plains to buy Billy Beer from the president’s brother. Both said they think Carter’s postpresidential record of service will be his lasting legacy.

“We may never have another president from Georgia,” Turner said. “He made history, and that makes today historic.”

The memorial events then continued with a stop in front of the Georgia Capitol, where Carter served as a senator, in the mid-1960s, and governor from 1971 to 1975.

Several prominent state and local elected officials, including Gov. Brian Kemp (R) and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens (D), greeted the procession with a moment of silence. They and Georgia lawmakers then joined members of the Carter family and other dignitaries at the Carter Center, the home of his postpresidential work.

The hearse carrying Carter’s casket arrived at the center shortly before 4 p.m. Members of the Carter family walked behind the vehicle. A military honor band played “Hail to the Chief” as the casket was unloaded and carried down the steps to the building for a private service that included comments from Jason Carter, the late president’s grandson, who vowed that the Carter Center’s work on such issues as democracy and human rights will continue.

“All of us have been thinking about this day and planning for it for a long time,” he said. “But it is obviously still hard for us.”

Later in the service, Chip Carter recalled some of his favorite childhood memories with his father. The former president’s son recounted how he’d struggled in school with Latin, until one day when his father asked for his textbook, went to work and came back and taught him everything he’d learned that day from reading it.

Chip Carter went on to describe how Jimmy Carter’s work sometimes meant sacrificing time with family, recalling, “We didn’t lose touch but you had to get an appointment in advance.” But he said that in frequent trips later in life, he’d had the experience of becoming friends with his busy parents, something he relished.

“He was an amazing man. And he was held up and propped up and soothed by an amazing woman. And the two of them together changed the world,” he said, choking up. “And it was an amazing thing to watch from so close, and to be able to be involved in.”

Carter’s body is scheduled to lie in public repose from Saturday night until early Tuesday, when the casket will be flown to Washington. His body will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda ahead of a state funeral at Washington National Cathedral on Thursday.

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Rosza reported from Americus. Lynn reported from Plains.