By Peter Baker
The state funeral of former President Jimmy Carter is scheduled for Jan. 9 at Washington National Cathedral, with President Joe Biden delivering the eulogy, concluding over a week of ceremonies and tributes, as stated by organizers earlier this week.
As part of the observance, Biden has declared Jan. 9 a national day of mourning and ordered all federal offices closed. The New York Stock Exchange will also be closed that day in memory of the 39th president.
Due to the New Year’s holiday, the eight-day plan that organizers proposed for memorial services honoring Carter will not commence until later this week. On Saturday, a motorcade will transport the former president’s remains through Plains, Georgia, stopping briefly at his childhood home in front of his family’s farm, where a historic farm bell will toll 39 times.
Following this, Carter’s body will be transported to Atlanta, where Governor Brian Kemp and other officials will observe a moment of silence at the Georgia State Capitol before it is moved to the Carter Center, the site of Carter’s post-presidential humanitarian efforts. The body will stay at the center for mourners on Saturday night, Sunday, and Monday, according to a schedule provided by the U.S. military task force responsible for presidential funerals.
Carter, who passed away at the age of 100 at his home in Plains on Sunday, will be flown by presidential aircraft to Washington on Tuesday, Jan. 7. Once there, it will be taken to the U.S. Navy Memorial to honor his service as a submariner. Subsequently, the body will be transported by horse-drawn caisson to the Capitol, where it will lie in state until Jan. 8, following the tradition for several past presidents dating back to Abraham Lincoln. It is anticipated that thousands will come to pay their respects, including lawmakers, diplomats, and citizens.
The cathedral service, typically the focal point for presidential funerals and major American figures, is expected to be the highlight of the remembrance events. Attendance by other former presidents is expected, but it remains uncertain whether President-elect Donald Trump, who has often criticized Carter, will be invited or attend.
While the military task force did not provide a detailed program for the cathedral service, sources involved in the planning indicated that, aside from Biden, Jason Carter, the former president’s grandson and chair of the Carter Center, will address attendees, along with Stuart E. Eizenstat, who served as Carter’s domestic policy advisor.
Eulogies will also be delivered on behalf of two individuals close to Carter who have already passed away: former President Gerald Ford and former Vice President Walter Mondale. Ford, who lost to Carter in the 1976 election but later became a friend, died in 2006, while Mondale passed away in 2021. Their sons, Steven Ford and Ted Mondale, are set to deliver these eulogies.
After the cathedral ceremony, Carter’s remains will be returned to Georgia for burial. Although initial plans included transporting the body by train, Carter expressed his disapproval, stating, “If you take my cold, dead body across the U.S. by train, I’ll haunt you until the day you die.” As a result, his remains will be brought back to Georgia via a military flight.
A private funeral will take place that afternoon at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, where Carter taught Sunday school into his 90s. Following a missing-man formation flyover by U.S. Navy jets, he will be interred next to his wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who passed away at 96 in November 2023, in a family plot adjacent to a willow tree beside a pond in the town where they both grew up and spent much of their lives.
These events mark the first presidential funeral since George H.W. Bush’s passing in 2018 and occur during a highly charged political moment in the U.S., as one party’s president prepares to hand over the office to a president from the opposing party. In line with federal regulations, Biden has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff for the next 30 days, ensuring they will still be lowered on Jan. 20, the day Trump is inaugurated.
The timing of the services during Biden’s administration eases some potentially awkward encounters and decisions, as he, rather than Trump, will be the incumbent president during the proceedings.
Biden shares a particularly close bond with Carter compared to other former presidents. He was the first Democratic senator to back Carter’s unlikely 1976 presidential campaign and in 2021 became the first serving president to honor him with a visit at his Plains residence.
“His compassion and moral clarity lifted people up and transformed lives and saved lives globally,” Biden remarked in a televised address Sunday night from St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. “Jimmy Carter stands as an embodiment of simple decency.”
