Carter, who was in the White House from 1977-1981, died on 29 December at the age of 100.
Six days of funeral observances for former President Jimmy Carter have begun Saturday in Georgia, the state where he died on 29 December at the age of 100.
The first events reflected Carter’s climb up the political ladder, from the tiny town of Plains to a lifetime on the global stage as a humanitarian and advocate for democracy.
The proceedings began on Saturday morning with the Carter family arriving at Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus.
Former Secret Service agents who protected Carter served as pallbearers, walking alongside the hearse as it exited the campus on its way to Plains.
James Earl Carter Jr. lived more than 80 of his 100 years in and around the town, which still has fewer than 700 people, not much more than when he was born on 1 October, 1924.
The motorcade moved through downtown Plains, which spans just a few blocks, passing near the girlhood 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 included the old train depot that served as Jimmy Carter’s 1976 presidential campaign headquarters.
The motorcade passed 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.
After passing through Plains, the procession stopped in front of Carter’s family farm and boyhood home in Archery, just outside the town, after passing the cemetery where the former president’s parents are buried.
The farm now is part of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park. The National Park Service rang the old farm bell 39 times to honour the 39th president.
From Archery, the motorcade headed north to Atlanta. The military-run motorcade stopped 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 led a moment of silence.
While former governors are honoured with state-run funerals, presidents, even if they served as governors, are memorialised with national rites run by the federal government.
The motorcade then proceeded to the Carter Presidential Center, which includes Carter’s presidential library and The Carter Center, established by the former president and first lady in 1982.
Carter’s son, James Earl ‘Chip’ Carter III, and his grandson, Jason Carter, spoke to an assembly that included many Carter Center employees whose work concentrating on international diplomacy and mediation, election monitoring and fighting disease in the developing world continues to set a standard for what former presidents can accomplish.
Jimmy Carter, who delivered the centre’s annual reports until 2019, won the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize in part for this post-presidential work.
Carter was scheduled to lie in repose from 7pm local time on Saturday evening until 6am on Tuesday, with the public able to pay respects around the clock.
Carter’s remains will then travel to Washington, where he will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda until his funeral at 10 am on Thursday at the Washington National Cathedral.
All living presidents have been invited and Joe Biden will deliver a eulogy.
Biden also signed a bill to name a US Postal Service facility in Plains after Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter.
The Carter family then will return to bury the former president in Plains after a private hometown funeral at the Maranatha Baptist Church, where Carter 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.
