Americans say goodbye to US President Jimmy Carter

Americans have been gathering to mourn Jimmy Carter as a nearly week-long state funeral begins for the 39th president of the United States.

Saturday’s procession from Carter’s home in Plains, Georgia, to Atlanta marked the beginning of a six-day public farewell to the statesman, who died last month at the age of 100.

Carter will be flown to Washington DC on Tuesday, where he will remain at the US Capitol before a service on Thursday that will include remarks from former US presidents.

Hundreds of Georgians and people from around the world gathered in Atlanta this weekend to pay their respects to the Carter family.

Among those who came on Saturday was Heather Brooks, an Atlanta resident and “big fan” of the Democrat.

“(I) found him always kind, relatable, just an incredible individual who has done a lot for the world, not just for the United States,” Brooks told the BBC.

He said he had met Carter several times and described him as “powerful but very humble.”

Paige Alexander, director of the Carter Center, told the BBC that Carter should be remembered for his “sincerity and integrity.”

“I mean, at the end of the day, there is a politician who would say during a debate, you know, ‘The Honorable President (Gerald) Ford and I don’t agree on these issues,'” Ms. Alexander said. “You don’t hear that anymore.”

The grass area outside the Carter Center has been filled with flowers, handwritten tributes and bags of peanuts, a reference to Carter’s early years as a peanut farmer in Plains.

Those who knew the former president well, like Jill Stuckey, a longtime friend of the Carter family, said they will miss his (and his wife Rosalynn’s) commitment to helping others.

That’s something Stuckey said the couple was committed to “until the day they died.”

“I don’t know how we are going to get used to a world without President Carter,” he told the BBC.

On Saturday, the motorcade passed the Methodist church where the Carters were married in 1946 and the house where they lived and died.

The former president will be buried there next to Rosalynn, who died at the end of 2023 at the age of 96.

The procession also stopped in front of Carter’s childhood home and the family farm outside Plains. The site is now part of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park, which rang the old farm bell 39 times Saturday in honor of the 39th president.

The motorcade then stopped at the Georgia State Capitol Building for a moment of silence led by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.

Mourners will be able to visit Carter at the presidential library on January 5 and 6 before he is flown to Washington DC on January 7.

For two days it will remain in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol, where the public will be able to pay their respects.

His life will be commemorated at Washington National Cathedral on January 9 in a service attended by several former presidents.

In addition to the political praise Carter is expected to receive in the coming days, there are personal tributes from his extended family.

For Jason Carter, the former president’s grandson, what he will especially miss is the personal connection he had with people.

“I think for many people in the country he was a beacon of love and respect and I think he’s worth celebrating,” Jason Carter, a former Georgia state senator, told the BBC.