Jimmy Carter’s long public goodbye began on Saturday in south Georgia, where the 39th US president’s life began more than 100 years ago.
A motorcade with his flag-draped coffin began at the Phoebe Sumter Medical Centre in Americus, where former Secret Service agents who protected him served as pallbearers and walked alongside the hearse as it left the campus.
A mournful train whistle filled the clear air as the pallbearers turned to face the hearse for a final goodbye, their hands on their hearts.
The Carter family, including the former president’s four children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, are accompanying their patriarch in a procession that will take his remains through his beloved home town of Plains and past his boyhood home on its way to Atlanta.
Mr Carter died at his home in Plains on December 29 at the age of 100.
Families lined the procession route in central Plains, near the historic train depot where Mr Carter had his presidential campaign headquarters.
Some carried bouquets of flowers or wore commemorative pins bearing Mr Carter’s photo.
“We want to pay our respects,” said Will Porter Shelbrock, 12, who was born more than three decades after Mr Carter left the White House in 1981.
“He was ahead of his time on what he tried to do and tried to accomplish.”
It was his idea to make the trip to Plains from Gainesville, Florida, with his grandmother, Susan Cone, 66, so they could witness the start of Mr Carter’s final journey.
He said he admired Mr Carter for his humanitarian work building houses and waging peace, and for installing solar panels on the White House.
Mr Carter and his late wife Rosalynn, who died in November 2023, were born in Plains and lived most of their lives in and around the town, apart from Mr Carter’s navy career and his terms as Georgia governor and president.
The procession will stop in front of Mr Carter’s boyhood home on his family farm just outside Plains.
The National Park Service will ring the old farm bell 39 times to honour his place as the 39th president.
Mr Carter’s remains then will proceed to Atlanta for a moment of silence in front of the Georgia Capitol and a ceremony at the Carter Presidential Centre.
He will remain there until Tuesday, when he will be transported to Washington to lie in state at the US Capitol.
His state funeral begins on Thursday at 10am at Washington National Cathedral, followed by a return to Plains for an invitation-only funeral at Maranatha Baptist Church.
He will be buried near his home, next to Rosalynn Carter.
