Biden: Former President Jimmy Carter was a man of character, patriot

Jeremy Redmon, Tia Mitchell and Patricia Murphy, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Jan 9, 2025

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President Joe Biden honored former President Jimmy Carter at his state funeral in Washington on Thursday, remembering his longtime friend as a man of character and a patriot who “showed us what it means to be a practitioner of good works and a good and faithful servant of God and of the people.”

“To young people — to anyone — in search of meaning and purpose, study the power of Jimmy Carter’s example. I miss him,” Biden said moments before gently placing his hand on Carter’s flag-draped casket.

The nation’s 39th president and a former Georgia governor, Carter died Dec. 29 after nearly two years in home hospice care. Carter, the only Georgian ever elected to the White House, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for advancing peace, democracy and human rights.

Biden honored Carter on the final day of a nearly weeklong series of memorial events that began and will end in southwest Georgia. From Plains to Atlanta to the U.S. Capitol and back, Carter’s final journey features sharply contrasting themes from his 100 years on this planet.

The first of his two funeral services was held in the nation’s capital, where Carter served as president from January of 1977 to January of 1981. His second funeral service will take place in his tiny hometown Plains, where he lived for decades in the same modest ranch-style house with former first lady Rosalynn Carter until she died in 2023.

Biden honored Carter at Washington National Cathedral, an English Gothic house of worship with flying buttresses, pinnacles and vaulted ceilings. Later Thursday, Carter will be memorialized at the much smaller Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains. The former president taught Sunday school there for decades and even mowed the grass.

Among the hundreds of mourners who attended the service at the cathedral were former Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama; President-elect Donald Trump; and world leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The private service at Carter’s church in Plains will be able to accommodate far fewer people, including relatives and friends who may be less famous but who were no less dear to the former president.

The memorial events started in the morning at the U.S. Capitol, where Carter lay in state. Accompanied by a U.S. military honor guard, his remains sat atop a platform that was built in 1865 to support Abraham Lincoln’s casket.

“Hail to the Chief” was performed as Carter’s casket was carried to a hearse for the drive to the cathedral. Completed in 1990, it has also hosted state funerals for other presidents, including Gerald Ford. Carter befriended Ford after defeating him in the 1976 election. At the cathedral this afternoon, Ford’s son, Steven, read a eulogy written by the late Republican president.

“As for myself, Jimmy, I am looking forward to our reunion. We have much to catch up on,” Steven Ford recited from his father’s tribute. “Thank you, Mr. President. Welcome home, old friend.”

Country music stars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood performed John Lennon's “Imagine." Andrew Young, Carter’s ambassador to the United Nations, read Scripture before delivering his own tribute to the former president. Other speakers included Ted Mondale, the son of the late former Vice President Walter Mondale; Stuart Eizenstat, Carter’s chief White House domestic affairs adviser; and Carter’s grandchildren.

Jason Carter said his grandparents were “small-town people who never forgot who they were and where they were from, no matter what happened in their lives.” Driving home his point, he vividly described their home in Plains, joking “it looks like they might have built it themselves.” His grandfather, he added, “was likely to show up at the door in some '70s short-shorts and Crocs.”

“It was like thousands of other grandparents’ houses all across the South. Fishing trophies on the walls. The refrigerator, of course, was papered with pictures of grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” Jason Carter said. “And demonstrating their Depression-era roots, they had a little rack next to the sink where they would hang Ziploc bags to dry.”

Later Thursday, Jimmy Carter will be buried outside that modest home in Plains, next to his beloved wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter.

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(Atlanta Journal-Constitution staff writers Mirtha Donastorg, Alexis Stevens and Ernie Suggs and contributed to this report.)

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