Jimmy Carter was celebrated Thursday (January 9, 2025) for his personal humility and public service before, during and after his presidency in a funeral at Washington National Cathedral featuring the kind of pageantry the 39th U.S. president typically eschewed. It was followed by an intimate hometown funeral near where he was born a century ago.
All of Carter’s living successors attended in Washington, with President Joe Biden, who was the first sitting senator to endorse his 1976 run for the White House, eulogising his longtime friend. Mr. Biden and others took turns in the morning praising Carter’s record — which many historians have appraised more favourably since he lost his bid for a second term in 1980 — and extolling his character.
The dual ceremonies in Washington and Plains, Georgia, provided a moment of national comity in a notably partisan era and offered a striking portrait of a president who was once judged a political failure, only for his life ultimately to be recognized as having lasting national and global impact.
“He built houses for people who needed homes,” said Joshua Carter, a grandson who recalled how Carter regularly taught Sunday school in Plains after leaving the White House. “He eliminated diseases in forgotten places. He waged peace anywhere in the world, wherever he saw a chance. He loved people.”
Jason Carter, another grandson, wryly noted his grandparents’ frugality, such as washing and reusing Ziploc bags, and his grandfather’s struggles with his cellphone.
“They were small-town people who never forgot who they were and where they were from, no matter what happened in their lives,” said Jason, who chairs the Carter Center, a global humanitarian operation founded by Jimmy and his late wife, Rosalynn Carter.
Former presidents in attendance
At the national service, former President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump, who have mocked each other for years going back to Trump fanning conspiracy theories about Obama’s citizenship, sat next to each other and talked for several minutes, even sharing a laugh.
Former President Barack Obama talks with President-elect Donald Trump as Melania Trump listens and as former President Geroge W. Bush, Laura Bush, Vice President Kamala Harris, and second gentleman Doug Emhoff arrive, before the state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter
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AP
As Mr. Trump went to his seat, he shook hands with Mike Pence in a rare interaction with his former vice president. The two split over Mr. Pence’s refusal to help Mr. Trump overturn his election defeat to Mr. Biden four years ago. Karen Pence, the former second lady, did not rise from her chair when her husband did so to greet Mr. Trump.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Mr. Trump in November, entered afterward and was not seen interacting with him. Former first lady Michelle Obama did not attend.
All politics were not left outside the cathedral, though. Mr. Biden, who leaves office in 11 days, repeated several times that “character” was Carter’s chief attribute. Mr. Biden said Carter taught him that “everyone should be treated with dignity and respect.”
“We have an obligation to give hate no safe harbor,” Biden said, also noting the importance of standing up to “abuse in power.” Those comments echoed Mr. Biden’s typical criticisms of Mr. Trump.
Eulogies
In Plains, Carter’s personal pastor, Tony Lowden, touched on the political as well, saying Carter was “still teaching us a lesson” with the timing of his death as a new Congress begins its work and Mr. Trump prepares for a second administration. Lowden, who did not name Mr. Trump or others, urged the nation to follow Carter’s example: “not self, but country.”
“Don’t let his legacy die. Don’t let this nation die,” Lowden said. “Let faith and hope be our guardrails.”
The funeral procession of former President Jimmy Carter passes by on January 9, 2025 in Plains, Georgia.
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Getty Images via AFP
Carter died December 29 at age 100, living so long that two of Thursday’s eulogies were written by people who died before him — his vice president, Walter Mondale, and his presidential predecessor, Gerald Ford.
“By fate of a brief season, Jimmy Carter and I were rivals,” Ford said in his eulogy, which was read by his son Steven. “But for the many wonderful years that followed, friendship bonded us as no two presidents since John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.”
Carter defeated Ford in 1976, but the presidents and their wives became close friends, and Carter eulogized Ford at his own funeral.
Days of formal ceremonies and remembrances from political leaders, business titans and rank-and-file citizens have honored Carter for his decency and using a prodigious work ethic to do more than obtain political power.
Published – January 10, 2025 03:34 pm IST
