Jimmy Carter’s state funeral begins today with procession through south Georgia

Six days of events honoring former President Jimmy Carter began Saturday with a procession stopping in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, tributes at the state Capitol, and then a private service at the Carter Center in Atlanta, where his body will lie in repose until Tuesday.

Carter died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100. He served in the U.S. Navy for seven years before working on the family farm and running for office in Georgia, winning the governorship in 1970. Carter, a Democrat, was elected to the White House in 1976 and served a single term. 

In his life post-presidency, Carter continued to pursue his passion for humanitarian work and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his decades of efforts in advancing international peace, democracy and human rights.

“For us, in my family, we just knew him as a grandfather … and we’ve shared him with the country and the world in certain ways,” Jason Carter, his grandson and chair of the Carter Center’s board, told “CBS Mornings” on Friday. “I think people really connect with him because he was always just a regular guy.”

“This is somebody from a small town in south Georgia who was a peanut farmer who ultimately became the president of the United States. It’s a pretty remarkable American story,” he added.

Saturday’s events started in the morning when Carter’s family arrived at a local medical center in Americus, Georgia, with current and former Secret Service agents carrying Carter’s casket to the hearse and walking alongside it as the motorcade departed for Plains.

In Plains, the motorcade paused briefly in front of the farm where he grew up, and the National Park Service rang a bell 39 times in his honor, in recognition of his status as the nation’s 39th president.

The motorcade will then travel to the state Capitol in Atlanta, where there will be a moment of silence led by Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, Mayor of Atlanta Andre Dickens, members of the Georgia Legislature and Georgia State Patrol Troopers. 

The motorcade will then depart for the Carter Center, where there will be an arrival ceremony, followed by a private service. 

Carter’s body will then lie in repose at the Carter Center until 6 a.m. on Tuesday. A departure ceremony will be held, and then his casket will be transported to Washington, D.C., where he will be transferred to a hearse with an arrival ceremony. The motorcade will stop at the U.S. Navy Memorial and then the casket will be transferred from a hearse to a horse-drawn caisson with ceremony.

The funeral procession will then head to the U.S. Capitol, where military bearers will carry the casket to the Rotunda. Members of Congress can pay their respects during a ceremony, and then Carter will lie in state while the military maintains a guard of honor. Members of the public will have an opportunity to pay their respects.

Carter will lie in state in the Rotunda until Thursday when there will be a state funeral at the Washington National Cathedral. His remains will then be transferred back to Georgia for a private funeral service at the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, where Carter taught Sunday school for many years.

Following the private funeral, there will be a motorcade through Plains to his home, where he is set to be buried. The U.S. Navy will conduct a missing man formation flyover to honor him, and then there will be a private burial. 

He will be laid to rest beside his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn, who died in November 2023.