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Jimmy Carter state funeral set for Jan. 9; global praise rings out: Live updates
Jimmy Carter: His life and legacy in helping millions around the world
If anyone could perfectly sum up his life on this Earth, it is former President Jimmy Carter himself, a man who lived every day helping others.
PLAINS, Ga. − The official state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter will be held Jan. 9 at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., the White House confirmed Monday.
Details on other events in Washington and in Georgia, including Carter’s burial, have not been released. President Joe Biden has declared Jan. 9 as a National Day of Mourning and has ordered U.S. flags to fly at half-staff for 30 days.
In Plains on Monday, two National Park Service rangers hung wreaths marked with black ribbon on the doors of the building where Carter went to high school. The school is now the Plains High School Visitor’s Center and is dedicated to teaching people about Carter.
Inside, Sandra Hicks — who lives down the road in Americus, Georgia — was touring the school with her grandsons. She wanted to teach the boys about Carter’s legacy “so they can learn more about where he actually came from, get a firsthand experience of what it looked like.” Hicks met the Carters while she was working at the photo center in the Walmart in Americus.
“He was never a stranger, even with Secret Service and what have you,” Hicks said.
One of her grandsons, Jaxson Hughes, 11, expressed his appreciation for having a president from near where he lives. He said Carter knew the struggle of the people in the area and was able to advocate for them.
Hicks mentioned Carter’s long history on humanitarian work, particularly his time with Habitat for Humanity, when she said he did much good in Americus. On a broader scale, Hicks said Carter also helped change the culture of Americus into one that cared for all the people of the town.
Dave and Nancy Shelbourne were also visiting the school Monday. The couple, from Indianapolis, was driving to Naples, Florida for the winter. After Carter died, they stopped in Plains to learn about the president in honor of their grandson also named Carter.
“It’s just nice to know there are still good people in the world still trying to do things for humanity,” Dave Shelbourne said about the president.
Praise for Carter’s life and legacy was pouring in from around the world Monday. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres cited multiple international treaties spearheaded by Carter during his presidency, from 1977 through 1980, that “contributed significantly to international peace and security.” Guterres lauded Carter for his commitment to peace and human rights long after his presidential term through participation in conflict mediation, election monitoring and disease eradication.
“President Carter will be remembered for his solidarity with the vulnerable, his abiding grace and his unrelenting faith in the common good and our common humanity,” Guterres said.
Britain’s King Charles described Carter as a “committed public servant” who “devoted his life to promoting peace and human rights. His dedication and humility served as an inspiration to many, and I remember with great fondness his visit to the United Kingdom in 1977.”
Keir Starmer, the country’s Labor Party prime minister, said Carter “lived his values in the service of others to the very end.”
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said the decisions by Carter’s administration to acknowledge Beijing’s position that Taiwan is part of “one China” and sever formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan “helped chart a new course” between the two nations.
The committee that awarded Carter the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 noted that Carter lived for 100 years and said his efforts to advance peace, democracy and human rights “will be remembered for another 100 years or more.”
Sisters Dawn Tarpley and Holly Cooper were taking a walk at the Jimmy Carter Boyhood Farm on Monday. The pair was visiting from Texas and had planned the trip before Carter’s death Sunday at the age of 100.
“Carter was an exceptional person and exceptional man,” Cooper said. The women were teenagers in the 1970s and remember Carter’s presidency firsthand.
“We’ve admired him for years,” Cooper said. “He was a man who stood up for his beliefs.”
Tarpley echoed her sister’s sentiments. “He just lived his life in an honorable way,” Tarpley said.
Jimmy Carter referenced Jesus in an interview with Playboy magazine and it cost the Democratic presidential nominee more than he could fathom in the moment.
“I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times,” Carter said, a quote that Playboy published weeks before the 1976 general election.
The article included other remarks related to Carter’s faith — such as the importance of the separation of church and state, a conviction born of Carter’s Southern Baptist upbringing — but the adultery comment opened a rift with Carter’s kin in Christ. Read more here.
− Liam Adams, Carla Hinton
President Joe Biden described Carter as a “dear friend” and cited accomplishments as president and as Georgia’s governor.
“This is a sad day, but it brings back an incredible amount of good memories,” Biden said during remarks from Saint Croix, where the president is on vacation. “Today, America and the world, in my view, lost a remarkable leader.”
Biden declared Thursday, Jan. 9, as a National Day of Mourning. On previous national days of mourning, such as after the deaths of former Presidents George H. W. Bush in 2018 and Gerald Ford in 2006, federal offices and stock markets were closed in the U.S.
After attending Georgia Southwestern College and the Georgia Institute of Technology, Carter attended the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and graduated in 1946 with a Bachelor of Science. Carter married Rosalynn Smith, whom he knew for most of his youth, on July 7, 1946, not long after his graduation. The two eventually had three sons – John William, James Earl III, Donnel Jeffrey – and a daughter, Amy Lynn.
Carter served as an active duty naval officer for seven years after his graduation, then eight more in the reserves. After his father died in 1953, Carter also took over the family farms and operated Carter’s Warehouse, a general-purpose seed and farm supply company in Plains. Carter’s political career began in the Georgia state Senate in 1963. Read more here.
− Jordan Mendoza
All four living former American presidents paid tribute on Sunday to the life and legacy of Carter, who died on Sunday at age 100. The condolences came from Donald Trump, the former and future president who is set to be sworn back into the White House next month, as well as Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, who praised Carter for working “tirelessly for a better, fairer world.”
Carter was the longest living former commander in chief in U.S. history, and his relationships with several of his successors put him in a unique position as a role model for post-presidency life.
“Carter was quite ambitious on human rights, global public health, election integrity and promoting democracy around the world,” said Matthew Dallek, a professor of political management at George Washington University. “In some ways he was a more political ex-president than many of the other ex-presidents we’ve had.”
− Rebecca Morin, Phillip M. Bailey
Members of Carter‘s family were preparing for a memorial journey from Plains, Georgia, to Atlanta and Washington, D.C., before returning for burial at his home in south Georgia. According to the Carter Center, public memorial observances will take place in Atlanta and Washington, D.C.
Final arrangements for Carter’s state funeral are pending; a formal schedule will come from the Joint Task Force-National Capital Region. The Carter Center urged members of the public to visit the official tribute website, which includes an online condolence book and other materials commemorating the life of the nation’s longest-living former president and only one to reach the century milestone.
Carter’s wife of 77 years, Rosalynn, passed away in November 2023.
− David Jackson
Carter was the only president alive who was in office during the 1970s after the death in 2006 of Gerald Ford and was the oldest living former president. Now, only four former presidents are alive, and only one was in office during the 20th century. The living presidents include Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
Trump, at 78, is the oldest living former president but will soon hand off that mantle to Biden. In 2019, Carter questioned Trump’s legitimacy as president, saying, “he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf.” Trump responded by calling Carter “a terrible president.” Here is a look at what the former presidents have done since leaving the White House.
− Jordan Mendoza
∙Jimmy Carter’s legacy: Growing up in Plains, Georgia shaped Jimmy Carter, just as he shaped his hometown
Contributing: Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY; Reuters
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