Jimmy Carter to be honored in Washington funeral and laid to rest in Georgia
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State funeral to be held for former president on national day of mourning before he is buried next to wife in Plains. Jimmy Carter, the former US president who died at age 100 on Sunday, will be honored with a state funeral before being laid to rest in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, next to his wife, Rosalynn.
The state funeral for Carter will be held in Washington DC on Thursday, 9 January. The date has also been declared a national day of mourning in the United States. In addition to the state funeral, there will be a public service in Atlanta, the capital of Carter’s home state, following which the former president will be buried in a private service in Plains, where he died.
The longest-lived president, Carter died on Sunday, two years after entering hospice care. Most of the nation saw the former president for the last time at Rosalynn Carter’s funeral last year. On Monday, the Carter family also accepted an invitation by Congress for Carter to lie in state in the US Capitol.
Congress extended the invitation to the late former president’s family “in recognition of his long and distinguished service to the nation”, the Carter Center said in a statement posted on X. The invitation was “respectfully and gratefully accepted”, the statement said.
Flags were flying at half-staff on federal buildings and grounds across the US in tribute to Carter on Monday, and they will continue to do so for the next 30 days. It’s tradition after deaths of acting presidents or former presidents for the US government to order American flags to fly at half-staff, or half-mast, on all federal buildings, grounds and naval vessels, across the US and its territories worldwide.
