The six-day funeral ceremonies of former US President Jimmy Carter began on Saturday in Georgia, where he died on December 29 at the age of 100.
The opening events reflect Carter's climb up the political ladder, from the small town of Plains, Georgia, to decades on the international stage as a humanitarian and champion of democracy.
Here's what you need to know about the opening ceremonies and what happens next:
Honoring Carter's rural Georgia roots
Proceedings are scheduled to begin at 10:15 a.m. ET Saturday, when the Carter family will arrive at Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus, a small town about 17 miles east of Plains.
Former Secret Service agents who protected Carter will carry the caskets as they walk alongside the hearse leaving the campus on its way into the city.
James Earl Carter Jr. he has spent more than 80 of his 100 years in the Plains area, which still has a population of fewer than 700 people, barely more than when he was born on October 1, 1924. Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton also grew up in the countryside, but Carter stands out for this that he returns and remains in his place of birth long after his presidency.
The convoy will move through downtown Plains, which spans just a few blocks, past the childhood home of first lady Rosalynn Smith Carter, who died in November 2023 at age 96, and near where the couple ran the family's peanut warehouse earthworks. The route also includes an old train station that served as Jimmy Carter's 1976 presidential campaign headquarters and a gas station once run by Carter's younger brother, Billy.
The motorcade will then pass by 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 along with Rosalynn.
The Carters built the one-story house, now surrounded by a Secret Service fence, before his first campaign for state Senate in 1962 and spent their entire lives there, except for four years in the Governor's Mansion and another four in the White House.
A mix of privileges and hard work
The military timetable includes a stop at 10:50 a.m. ET outside Carter's family farm and childhood home in Archery, near Plains, after passing the cemetery where the former president's parents – Father James Earl Carter Sr., who was driving by Earl – lived. and mother Lillian Carter – are buried.
The farm is now part of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park. The National Park Service will ring the old farm bell 39 times to honor the 39th president.
Carter was the first president born in a hospital. But when he was born, there was no electricity or running water in the house, and he farmed his father's land during the Great Depression. Still, the Carters had relative privilege and status.
Earl Carter employed black farming families. Elder Carter also owned a store in Plains and was a local civic and political leader. Lillian was a nurse and gave birth to Rosalynn. There is still a tennis court on the property that Earl built for the family.
It was Earl's death in 1953 that set Jimmy on a course towards the Oval Office. The younger Carter left Plains after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy. But Jimmy gave up a promising career as a submarine officer and early participant in the Pentagon's nuclear program to take over the family peanut business after his father's death. Within ten years, he was elected to the Georgia state Senate.
I lie in peace in Atlanta
From Archery, the cavalcade will travel about 150 miles north to Atlanta. It will end at 3 p.m. ET at the Georgia State Capitol, where he was a state senator from 1963 to 1967 and governor from 1971 to 1975. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens will lead a moment of silence. While former governors are honored through state funerals, presidents – even if they served as governors – are remembered through national observances administered by the federal government.
The motorcade is then scheduled to arrive at the Carter Presidential Center at 3:45 p.m., with a private service at 4 p.m. The campus is home to the Carter Presidential Library and the Carter Center, founded by the former president and first lady in 1982.
From 7 p.m. Saturday to 6 a.m. Monday, Carter will rest so the public can pay their respects around the clock.
The ceremony is expected to include some of the Carter Center's 3,000 staff members around the world whose work focusing on international diplomacy and mediation, election monitoring and disease control in developing countries continues to set the standard for achievements by former presidents.
Jimmy Carter, who provided it with annual reports through 2019, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in part in 2002 for this post-presidential work. His grandson Jason Carter currently chairs the board.
Back to Washington
Carter's remains will then be transferred to Washington, D.C., where he will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda until his funeral at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Washington National Cathedral. All living presidents are invited, and Joe Biden, a Carter ally, will deliver the eulogy.
Finally, the Carter family will return to bury their patriarch in Plains after a private hometown funeral at 3:45 p.m. at Maranatha Baptist Church, where Carter, a devout evangelical, taught Sunday school for decades.
Carter will then be buried in a private graveside service in a plot visible from the front porch of his home.