Jimmy Carter’s days-long funeral starts with hometown procession
Jimmy Carter ‘s extended public farewell began Saturday in Georgia, with the 39th U.S. president’s flag-draped casket tracing his long arc from the Depression-era South and family farming business to the pinnacle of American political power and decades as a global humanitarian.
Those chapters shone throughout the opening stanza of a six-day state funeral intended to blend personalized memorials with the ceremonial pomp afforded to former presidents. The longest-lived U.S. president, Carter died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100.
“He was an amazing man. He was held up and propped up and soothed by an amazing woman,” son James Earl “Chip” Carter III, told mourners at The Carter Center late Saturday afternoon, referring to his father and former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who died in 2023. “The two of them together changed the world. And it was an amazing thing to watch so close.”
Grandson Jason Carter, who now chairs the centre’s governing board, said: “It’s amazing what you can cram into a hundred years.”
Carter’s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren accompanied their patriarch as his hearse rode first Saturday through his hometown of Plains, Ga., which at about 700 residents is not much bigger than when Carter was born there Oct. 1, 1924. The procession stopped at the farm where the future president toiled alongside the Black sharecroppers who worked for his father. The motorcade continued to Atlanta, stopping in front of the Georgia Capitol where Carter served as a state senator and reformist governor.
Finally, he arrived for his last visit to the Carter Presidential Center, which houses his presidential library and The Carter Center where he based his post-White House advocacy for public health, democracy and human rights, setting a new standard for what former presidents can accomplish after they yield power.
“His spirit fills this place,” Jason Carter told the assembly that included some of the centre’s 3,000 employees worldwide. “You continue the vibrant living legacy of what is my grandfather’s life work,” he added.
Pallbearers on Saturday came from the Secret Service that protected the Carters for almost a half-century and a military honour guard that included Navy servicemembers for the only U.S. Naval Academy graduate to reach the Oval Office. A military band played Hail to the Chief and the hymn Be Thou My Vision for the commander in chief who also was a devout Baptist.
His longtime personal pastor, the Rev. Tony Lowden, remembered not a president but the frail man who spent the last 22 months in hospice care, “wrapped in a blanket” that included the words of Psalm 23.
Chip Carter recalled “the boss” he had to make an appointment to see in the Oval Office, but also the father who spent an entire Christmas break learning Latin and teaching his 8th-grade son who had failed a test. When he took that test again, the younger Carter said, he aced it: “I owed it to my father, who spent that kind of time with me.”
Jimmy Carter will lie in repose at the Carter Presidential Center from 7 p.m. Saturday through 6 a.m. Tuesday, with the public able to pay respects around the clock.
‘He walked the walk’
Scott Lyle, an engineer who grew up in Georgia but now lives in New York, was among the first mourners to pay his respects. Lyle said he joined Carter to build homes with Habitat for Humanity for the first time in LaGrange, Ga., in 2003. Since then, he has traveled around the world to build houses with the group.
“I got to see, what some people don’t get to see, close. He was an amazing man, and he cared about others. He walked the walk,” said Lyle, who was wearing Carter-themed Habitat gear. “And I can’t think of anyone else that I would want to stand in line to pay my respects for.”
National rites will continue in Washington and conclude Thursday with a funeral at Washington National Cathedral, followed by a return to Plains,Ga.. There, the former president will be buried next to his wife of 77 years near the home they built before his first state Senate campaign in 1962.
The Carters lived nearly all their lives in Plains, with the exception of his Naval service, four years in the Governor’s Mansion and four years in the White House. As his hearse rolled through the town, mourners lined the main street, some holding bouquets of flowers and wearing pins bearing images of the former president and his signature smile.
Willie Browner, 75, described Carter as hailing from a bygone era of American politics.
“This man, he thought of more than just himself,” said Browner, who grew up in the town of Parrott, Ga., about 24 kilometres from Plains. Browner said it meant “a great deal” to have a president come from a small Southern town like his — something he worries isn’t likely to happen again.
Jimmy Carter has passed away at the age of 100. He will be buried at his home in Plains, Georgia, where he lived most of his life. The National’s Adrienne Arsenault travelled there to speak to the people who knew the former U.S. president best and learn more about his life, legacy and love story.
Indeed, Carter helped plan his own funeral to emphasize that his remarkable rise to the world stage was because of — not despite — his deep rural roots.
Over the course of a few blocks in Plains, the motorcade passed near where the Carters ran the family peanut warehouse, and the small home where his mother, a nurse, had delivered the future first lady in 1927. The hearse passed the old train depot that served as Carter’s 1976 presidential campaign headquarters — a barebones effort that depended on public financing, dwarfed by the billion-dollar U.S. presidential campaigns of the 21st century.
At the Carter farm, a few dozen National Park Service rangers stood in formation in front of the home, which did not have running water or electricity when Carter was a boy. The old farm bell rang 39 times to honour Carter’s place as the 39th president.
Beside the house, there remains the tennis court that Carter’s father, James Earl Carter Sr., built for the family — a nod to the blend of privilege and hard rural life that defined the future president’s upbringing. Carter worked the land throughout the Great Depression, but it was owned by the elder Carter, who employed the surrounding Black tenant farmers during the era of Jim Crow segregation.
Carter wrote and spoke extensively on those formative years and how the abject poverty and institutional racism he saw influenced his policies in government and human rights work.
Calvin Smyre, a former Georgia legislator, remembered that legacy Saturday at the state Capitol. Smyre, who is Black, said Carter’s repudiation of racial segregation allowed Black people to wield power in Georgia.
“We stand on the shoulder of courageous people like Jimmy Carter,” Smyre said. “What he did shocked and shook the political ground here in the state of Georgia. And we live better because of that.”
Published at Sat, 04 Jan 2025 13:33:53 +0000
Prince William expresses sadness at death of his former nanny’s stepson in New Orleans attack
Prince William expressed his shock and sadness Saturday at the news of the death of his former nanny’s stepson in the New Year’s truck attack in New Orleans that killed 14 people and wounded dozens more.
London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed Saturday that they are supporting the family of 31-year-old Edward Pettifer, including helping them through the process of returning his body to the U.K. Pettifer was from west London.
In a statement on social media, the Prince of Wales said he and his wife, Catherine, were “shocked and saddened by the tragic death of Ed Pettifer. Our thoughts and prayers remain with the Pettifer family and all those innocent people who have been tragically impacted by this horrific attack.”
Pettifer was the stepson of Tiggy Legge-Bourke, who was the nanny for both William and his brother, Prince Harry, between 1993 and 1999, which included time after the death of their mother Princess Diana in 1997. Legge-Bourke, who is also known as Alexandra Pettifer, was regularly photographed with Diana.
British media also reported that King Charles is said to be deeply saddened by the news and that he has sent his condolences to Pettifer’s family.
In a statement, Pettifer’s family said they were “devastated at the tragic news of Ed’s death” and described him as “a wonderful son, brother, grandson, nephew and a friend to so many.”
“We will all miss him terribly. Our thoughts are with the other families who have lost their family members due to this terrible attack,” the family added.
The U.K.’s Foreign Office also said it was supporting Pettifer’s family and was in contact with U.S. authorities.
Authorities say 14 people were killed and about 30 were injured in the attack early Wednesday by Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a former U.S. Army soldier who posted several videos on his Facebook hours before the attack previewing the violence he would unleash and proclaiming his support for the Islamic State militant group. The coroner’s office listed the cause of death for all 14 victims as “blunt force injuries.”
Jabbar, 42, was fatally shot in a firefight with police at the scene of the deadly crash on Bourbon Street, famous worldwide for its festive vibes in New Orleans’ historic French Quarter.
Published at Sat, 04 Jan 2025 17:21:07 +0000
