The extended public farewell for President Jimmy Carter commenced in Georgia with a six-day state funeral intended to blend personalized memorials with the ceremonial grandeur bestowed upon former presidents. As the longest-lived U.S. executive, Carter passed away on December 29 at the age of 100. His son, James Earl ‘Chip’ Carter III, addressed mourners at The Carter Center, noting, ‘He was an amazing man, sustained and supported by an amazing woman,’ referring to his late mother, former first lady Rosalynn Carter. His grandson, Jason Carter, who now chairs the center’s governing board, remarked on the remarkable accomplishments packed into a hundred years. Carter’s family and descendants accompanied him as his hearse first traveled through his hometown of Plains, a community of about 700 residents unchanged from when Carter was born on October 1, 1924. The motorcade stopped at the farm where he worked alongside Black sharecroppers and continued to Atlanta, where Carter served as a state senator and reformist governor. The procession concluded at the Carter Presidential Center, a hub for his post-White House advocacy for public health, democracy, and human rights.
