Six days of funeral tributes for former US president Jimmy Carter are currently underway as a motorcade carrying his remains passed by flag-waving mourners and made its way to Plains, Georgia, for a final visit to his childhood home.
After a service in Atlanta later, the 39th president, who passed away last month at the age of 100, will lie in repose, allowing mourners to pay their respects.
Carter will be transported to lie in state at the US Capitol in Washington on Tuesday.
Since Carter’s death on December 29 at the age of 100 in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, flags nationwide have been at half-mast.
The motorcade carrying his remains will pause at Carter’s childhood family peanut farm, where a farm bell will ring 39 times in tribute to America’s 39th president.
Following this, his body will be brought to Atlanta for a brief stop at the Georgia Capitol, where he served as a state senator before becoming governor, allowing for a moment of silence.
Subsequently, Carter will be taken to the Carter Presidential Center, where he will lie in repose from 7 PM (12 AM Irish time) to 6 AM (11 AM Irish time) on Tuesday for public visitation.
Joe Biden has ordered flags to be flown at half-mast for 30 days.
Carter’s remains will be flown on Tuesday morning from a military base in Georgia to Joint Base Andrews outside Washington on a US Air Force plane known as Special Air Mission 39.
A motorcade will then transport the former commander-in-chief’s body to the US Navy Memorial.
Carter, who graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1946 and served on submarines, will be transferred from a hearse to a horse-drawn caisson for the funeral procession to the US Capitol.
Military pallbearers will carry his flag-draped casket to the Capitol rotunda, where he will lie in state until 7 AM (12 PM Irish time) on Thursday, surrounded by an honour guard of service members.
Carter will be the 13th former US president to lie in state in the Capitol; Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated in 1865, was the first.
A national funeral service is set to take place on Thursday at the National Cathedral, an Episcopal church in the nation’s capital that also hosted state funerals for former presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, and George HW Bush.
All four living former presidents—Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump—are anticipated to attend.
President Joe Biden will deliver the eulogy for his fellow Democrat, who served as president from 1977 to 1981.
Mr. Biden has declared Thursday a national day of mourning, and federal government offices will be closed that day.
He has also ordered flags to be flown at half-mast for 30 days in accordance with tradition, which means this will occur during Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
This drew criticism from the president-elect, who expressed on Truth Social that “no American can be happy” about having flags at half-mast during his inauguration.
After the cathedral service, Carter’s remains will be transported aboard Special Air Mission 39 back to Georgia for a private funeral service at the Baptist church in Plains where he taught Sunday school.
A final motorcade will take Carter’s body through his hometown to a burial plot at his residence.
US Navy jets will conduct a flyover in his honour before he is laid to rest beside his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn, who passed away in 2023 at the age of 96.
