Americans wave goodbye to US President Jimmy Carter

Americans are gathering to honor the memory of Jimmy Carter as a nearly week-long state funeral for the 39th US president begins.

Saturday’s procession from Carter’s home in Plains, Ga., to Atlanta was the start of a six-day public farewell to the statesman, who died last month at the age of 100.

Carter will be flown to Washington on Tuesday, where he will lie in state at the US Capitol ahead of a service on Thursday that will feature speeches by former US presidents.

Well-wishers from the state of Georgia and around the world gathered in Atlanta to pay their respects.

Among those who came Saturday was Heather Brooks, an Atlanta resident and “huge supporter” of the Democrat.

“(I) found him always kind, approachable, just an amazing person who did so much for the world, not just for America,” Ms Brooks told the BBC.

She said she had met Carter several times and described him as “powerful but so humble.”

Paige Alexander, director of the Carter Center, told the BBC that the ex-president should be remembered for his “sincerity and integrity”.

“I mean, at the end of the day, you have a politician who would say in a debate, you know, ‘honorable President (Gerald) Ford and I don’t agree on these issues,'” Ms. Alexandra said. – You won’t hear that now.

The grassy area outside the Carter Center was overflowing with flowers, handwritten tributes and bags of peanuts, a nod to Carter’s early years as a peanut farmer in the Plains.

Those who knew the former president well, like Jill Stuckey, a longtime friend of the Carter family, said she will miss his – and his wife Rosalyn’s – commitment to helping others.

It’s something Ms Stuckey said the couple was committed to “until the day they passed”.

“I don’t know how we’re going to get used to a world without President Carter,” she told the BBC.

On Saturday, the cortege passed the Methodist church where the Carters were married in 1946 and the home where they lived and died.

The former president will be buried there with Rosalyn, who died in late 2023 at the age of 96.

The procession also stopped in front of Carter’s childhood home and family farm near Plains. The site is now part of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park, which on Saturday rang the old farm bell 39 times in honor of the 39th president.

The motorcade then stopped at the Georgia State Capitol for a moment of silence led by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.

Those who wish will be able to visit Carter at the Presidential Library on January 5 and 6 before he leaves for Washington on January 7.

For two days, he will lie in state in the rotunda of the US Capitol, where the public can pay his respects.

His life will be honored at the Washington National Cathedral on January 9 in a service attended by several former presidents.

In addition to the political praise Carter is expected to receive in the coming days, there will be personal tributes from his extended family.

Jason Carter, grandson of the former president, will especially miss the personal connection he had with people.

“I think he was a beacon of love and respect for a lot of people in the country, and I think that should be celebrated,” the former Georgia state senator told the BBC.