Remembering Jimmy Carter: State funeral in DC honors legacy of an honest president who rose above politics

Jimmy Carter, a U.S. president who served only one term but was widely admired for his humanitarian work after leaving the White House, was remembered during his state funeral on Thursday as a man who put honesty and kindness above partisan politics.

Hundreds of mourners, including all five living current and former U.S. presidents, filed into the Washington National Cathedral, where Carter’s flag-draped coffin was attended by a military honor guard.

Fellow Democratic President Joe Biden eulogized the 39th president, who died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100, saying Carter‘s life was “the story of a man who never let the tides of politics divert him from his mission to serve and shape the world.”

“The man had character,” Biden said. “He showed us how character and faith start with ourselves and then flow to others.”

Tens of thousands of Americans have filed through the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol over the past two days to pay their respects to Carter, who was president from 1977 to 1981 and was burdened by an ailing economy and the Iran hostage crisis. Many mourners hailed him as an example of decency and humility for today’s breed of highly partisan politicians.

Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who will return to office on Jan. 20, was among the luminaries at the funeral.

Before the ceremony began, Trump entered the cathedral with his wife, Melania. He then shook hands with his former vice president, Mike Pence, whom he had clashed with after Pence refused to cooperate with his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

Trump sat next to former President Barack Obama, with whom he chatted as introductory music played. To Obama’s right were Laura and George W. Bush and Hillary and Bill Clinton.

Biden and first lady Jill Biden walked hand in hand and took seats in the first row next to Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff.

The man from Plains returns

Carter was born a peanut farmer in Plains, Georgia. He served as governor of that state from 1971 to 1975 and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his humanitarian work.

One of his grandsons, Jason Carter, who serves is chair of the Carter Center Board of Trustees, said the man he called “Paw-paw” and his grandmother Rosalynn Carter, who died in 2023, remained humble and true to their values, choosing to remain in their modest home in Plains.

“Yes, they spent four years in the governor’s mansion and four years in the White House but the other 92 years, they spent at home in Plains, Georgia,” Jason Carter said.

Carter will be buried in Plains.

“I never perceived a difference between his public face and his private one. He was the same person no matter who he was with or where he was, and for me, that’s the definition of integrity. That honesty was matched by love,” Jason Carter added.

Carter‘s daughter, Amy, joined other family members at the funeral. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Vice President-elect JD Vance and Biden’s son Hunter were also among the mourners. Former vice presidents Al Gore and Pence sat side by side.

Rivals turned friends

Jimmy Carter won the White House by defeating Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 U.S. election, in the years following Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal. The one-time political rivals went on to form a lasting friendship, and Carter eulogized Ford following his 2006 death.

Ford’s son, Steven, read a eulogy on Thursday that his father had written for Carter.

“Jimmy and I respected each other as adversaries even before we cherished one another as dear friends,” Ford said in his father’s words. “Jimmy knew my political vulnerabilities and he successfully pointed them out. Now I didn’t like it, but little could I know that the outcome of that 1976 election would bring about one of my deepest and most enduring friendships.”

Mourners who earlier paid their respects to Carter at the U.S. Capitol said they admired the late Southern Baptist, who played a key role in negotiating the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty as a gentleman rather than a partisan combatant.

“We’ve come so far from where Jimmy Carter was as a person, and it’s kinda sad,” said Dorian DeHaan, 67, who traveled some 275 miles (440 km) from Sugar Loaf, New York, to pay her respects. “I hope that this will be a reminder to people of what we need to get back to — that it’s not about the power; it’s about the people.”

As she waited in the public viewing line outside the Capitol, DeHaan said her daughter married into the family of the president’s younger sister, Ruth, presenting the opportunity to meet the former president in Plains, Georgia.

“But it’s a sad moment,” DeHaan said. “It’s the end of an era, and I think we kind of have lost this real belief in humanity in our presidency.”