Visitors to the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery gaze at a Norman Rockwell portrait of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in the Oval Office of the White House, draped in black mourning cloth, in Washington, DC, Dec. 30.ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images
When Jimmy Carter is buried next month, he will lie next to his wife, Rosalynn, near a willow tree and pond in the yard of the Plains, Ga., ranch house where they lived for more than six decades.
The long-standing interment plan fits with the image of modest living the former U.S. president embodied and used to great effect during his careers as a politician and international humanitarian.
Before Mr. Carter returns to his hometown of 550 people, however, he will lie in state in the U.S. Capitol and receive a state funeral in Washington. There will also be stops at the non-profit Carter Center, which he and Rosalynn founded in 1982, and at the Georgia capitol in Atlanta, from whence he ran the state as governor.
Mr. Carter died Sunday at the age of 100, the longest-lived president in U.S. history.
Flowers and mementos, including a Habitat for Humanity blue hard hat, are left as a tribute to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter near the sign of The Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, Ga., on Dec. 30.Octavio Jones/Reuters
President Joe Biden set Mr. Carter’s state funeral for Jan. 9, which he declared a national day of mourning. He also ordered that all U.S. flags at government and military institutions be flown at half-mast for 30 days.
Mr. Biden’s planned eulogy of Mr. Carter will be one of his final acts before ceding the presidency to Donald Trump 11 days later. Paying homage on Sunday, he grappled with the contrast between the former president’s image of decency and the current atmosphere of non-stop political warfare.
“Some look at Jimmy Carter and see a man of a bygone era, with honesty and character, faith and humility,” the President told reporters Sunday evening in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he was on holiday.
“But I don’t believe it’s a bygone era. I see a man not only of our times, but for all times. Someone who embodied the most fundamental human values we can never let slip away. Although sometimes it seems like it is.”
As a first-term senator in 1976, Mr. Biden was one of the first elected officials to endorse Mr. Carter’s come-from-behind presidential bid.
Other tributes for Mr. Carter poured in from across the country and around the world, with those weighing in ranging from heads of government to country music stars. While his roller-coaster presidency from 1977 to 1981 – which included successfully brokering peace between Egypt and Israel but failing to rescue U.S. hostages in Iran – remains divisive in his country, his personal integrity and postpolitics charitable work were universally lauded.
Jimmy Carter’s legacy is one of compassion, kindness, empathy, and hard work. He served others both at home and around the world his entire life — and he loved doing it. He was always thoughtful and generous with his advice to me.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) December 29, 2024
My deepest condolences to the Carter family,…
“Jimmy Carter’s legacy is one of compassion, kindness, empathy, and hard work. He served others both at home and around the world his entire life – and he loved doing it,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote on Instagram. “He was always thoughtful and generous with his advice to me.”
Mr. Trudeau posted a photograph of his father, Pierre Trudeau, with Mr. Carter in the Oval Office during the former’s time as prime minister. In the image, Mr. Carter is flipping through a copy of Between Friends, a photo book of the Canada-U.S. border presented to him by Mr. Trudeau.
On X, country singer Trisha Yearwood posted a photograph of herself framing a house with Mr. and Ms. Carter. “Rest easy, Mr. President. I’m sad for us, and happy for you,” she wrote. “Your and Mrs. Rosalynn’s legacy of love will live forever.”
Ms. Yearwood and her husband, singer Garth Brooks, were close with the Carters through their work with Habitat for Humanity, the home-building charity for which Mr. Carter was a high-profile volunteer. Ms. Yearwood and Mr. Brooks performed at Ms. Carter’s funeral last year.
In addition to Habitat for Humanity, Mr. Carter’s postpresidential work included mediating international conflicts, monitoring elections and running health programs around the world. He won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in 2002.
Mr. Trump earlier this month flamed Mr. Carter for “foolishly” agreeing to transfer the Panama Canal from American to Panamanian sovereignty when he was president. But after Mr. Carter’s death, the president-elect issued two laudatory posts on his Truth Social online platform.
“Those of us who have been fortunate to have served as President understand this is a very exclusive club, and only we can relate to the enormous responsibility of leading the Greatest Nation in History,” he wrote in the first post. In the second, he said Mr. Carter “worked hard to make America a better place” and was “also very consequential” after leaving the White House.
In a statement, former president Barack Obama recalled watching the deeply religious Mr. Carter teach Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, which Mr. Carter did for decades.
Mr. Obama also praised Mr. Carter’s work on environmental issues and diversifying the pool of federal judges as president, and his achievement of nearly eliminating guinea-worm disease with the Carter Center.
“Jimmy Carter believed, as deeply as he believed anything, that we are all created in God’s image,” Mr. Obama wrote.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres praised Mr. Carter’s work defusing international tensions, including with the SALT II treaty, which dialled back U.S. and Soviet manufacture of nuclear weapons. “His legacy as a peacemaker, human rights champion and humanitarian will endure,” Mr. Guterres wrote.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Mr. Carter was “a committed fighter for democracy” and “a great mediator for peace.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Mr. Carter was a supporter of Ukrainian freedom, both when it was part of the Soviet Union and now as it faces a grinding invasion by Russia. “Today, let us remember: peace matters, and the world must remain united in standing against those who threaten these values,” he wrote.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said he was “deeply saddened” by Mr. Carter’s death. During his presidency, Mr. Carter continued the process of normalizing relations with communist China begun by Richard Nixon and cancelled a mutual defence treaty with Taiwan.
“Over the years, he made significant contributions to the development of China-US relations and the friendship between the two countries,” Mr. Xi wrote.