WASHINGTON – President Jimmy Carter will still lie in state on Wednesday after his remains arrived in Washington a day earlier as part of state funeral rites.
The Georgian Democrat and 39th president died on December 29 at the age of 100.
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Carter served as president from 1977 to 1981, winning the office as an outsider in the wake of the Vietnam War and Watergate. He survived hard four years of economic unrest and international crises, which ended with his defeat against Republican Ronald Reagan. But he also lived long enough to see historians reassess his presidency more favorably than voters did in 1980.
Was Tuesday to remember at the Capitol for his deep religious faith, long public service and decades of humanitarian work beyond what he achieved in politics.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker Mike Johnson were among those who paid bipartisan tributes to Carter in the Capitol Rotunda, where his flag-adorned casket remains atop Lincoln’s catafalque for citizens to pay their respects.
Carter will remain at the Capitol until Thursday morning, when he will be transported to the Washington National Cathedral for a state funeral. President Joe BidenCarter’s longtime ally will deliver a eulogy. Other living former presidents, including the president-elect Donald Trumpattendance is expected.
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After the funeral, a Boeing 747, i.e. Air Force One with the sitting president on board, will take Carter and his family back to Georgia. The by-invitation funeral will be held at Maranatha Baptist Church on Tiny Plains, where Carter lives he taught Sunday school for decades after leaving office.
Carter will be buried next to his wife, the former first lady Rosalynn Carteron a plot of land near the house they had built before his first campaign for state Senate in 1962 and where they had lived all their lives except four years in the Georgia Governor’s Mansion and four years in the White House.
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