Biden declares January 9 a day of mourning for Carter
"I call on the American people to assemble on that day in their respective places of worship, there to pay homage to the memory of President James Earl Carter Jr.," Biden said in a formal declaration issued late Sunday. "I invite the people of the world who share our grief to join us in this solemn observance."
The solemn event January 9 in the nation's capital will draw all the living American presidents and a host of dignitaries. Biden also ordered the U.S. flag to be flown at half-staff for 30 days from the date of Carter's death at public buildings, military posts and U.S. government buildings overseas.
Events begin Saturday
Biden has bestowed upon Carter a state funeral, a three-stage multiday event coordinated by the U.S. military that includes observances in the capital and ceremonies in the home state of the deceased. Carter has repeatedly expressed his wish to be buried in his front yard in the small town of Plains, Georgia, beside his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn. She died in 2023. Carter was in hospice care for two years before his own death at 100 made him the longest-living former president in U.S. history.
Observances for this peanut-farmer-turned-president will stretch over several days and involve coordination by local, state and national law enforcement, the military and the countless elected officials and members of the public expected to pay their respects.
It begins Saturday, in Georgia. Members of Carter's Secret Service detail will accompany his hearse as it travels in a motorcade through Plains. The motorcade will pass his family's farm, where members of the National Park Service will ring the farm bell 39 times to symbolize his status as the 39th president. The motorcade will proceed to the state Capitol, in Atlanta, where it will be greeted by the governor, the city's mayor, members of the state Legislature and state troopers.
Carter's remains will then be taken to the Carter Presidential Center for an afternoon service. He will lie in repose through Tuesday, January 7.
On that day, the president's surviving family will accompany his remains as they travel on a special Air Force plane to Washington. In Washington, the former naval officer's remains will be taken by hearse motorcade to the U.S. Navy Memorial. A horse-drawn ceremonial procession will complete his trip from there to the U.S. Capitol, where military body bearers will carry him into the heart of the building, the rotunda. Members of Congress will hold an afternoon service, and his body will lie in state there, with a military guard of honor, until the morning of January 9.
The Washington National Cathedral will hold the national funeral service at 10 a.m. That structure has played host to several previous state funerals, including those of former Presidents Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush.
Carter's funeral is likely to be attended by all five living American presidents — a list that includes George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, former and future President Donald Trump, and Biden. Biden, at 82, is now the eldest statesman of that group.
Biden inadvertently revealed, in March last year at a national Democratic Party event, that Carter, also a Democrat, had asked him to deliver his eulogy.
In his statement late Sunday, Biden described Carter as "a man of character, courage and compassion, whose lifetime of service defined him as one of the most influential statesmen in our history."
He continued: "He embodied the very best of America: A humble servant of God and the people. A heroic champion of global peace and human rights, and an honorable leader whose moral clarity and hopeful vision lifted our nation and changed our world."
The end, with Rosalynn
Carter's final voyage happens in Georgia, on the afternoon of January 9. His family will hold a private service at the Carters' home church, Maranatha Baptist Church.
And then the motorcade will wind its way back along those familiar roads, to Plains, and to the low-slung home the Carters built, where they raised their children, and where they settled after the White House. The U.S. Navy will perform a missing-man formation flyover right before Carter is lowered into his final resting place, next to Rosalynn.