Three days of tributes to late first lady Rosalynn Carter kicked off Monday — with the Georgian starting her final journey carried by the men sworn to protect her.
Current and former Secret Service agents assigned to Carter’s detail bore her flower-covered casket to a waiting hearse outside Sumter Medical Center in Americus, Ga., 10 miles east of her hometown of Plains.
The motorcade’s first stop was at Carter’s alma mater, Georgia Southwestern State University, where two wreaths were laid near a bronze statue of the former first lady outside the school’s health and human sciences building which bears her name.
“She leaves a legacy for us to strive to meet,” university President Neal Weaver said during the official observance, which included the former first lady’s daughter, Amy Carter, and her sons John “Jack” Carter, James “Chip” Carter and Donnel “Jeff” Carter.
Weaver praised “the way that she engaged with people, saw humanity as a real positive and wanted people to be successful and wanted to invest in their lives.”
Hundreds of Georgians, including schoolchildren, lined the streets along the motorcade route to Atlanta, waving American flags and paying their respects to the former first lady as the hearse passed.
The motorcade arrived at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta just after 3:15 p.m., pulling into the library’s Circle of Flags, all at half staff in memory of the former first lady, according to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.
The Armed Forces Body Bearer team, an honor guard composed of members of each military service branch and considered the foremost funeral detail in the US, met the procession and carried Carter’s casket into the building’s lobby for a private repose service.
The former first lady will lie in repose at the Atlanta library and museum Monday evening, with the public welcome to pay their respects for four hours beginning at 6 p.m.
Rosalynn Carter died Nov. 19 at the age of 96, two days after her family announced she had joined her husband, former President Jimmy Carter, in hospice care.
Jimmy Carter, 99, was expected to attend a memorial service in honor of his late wife Tuesday afternoon, a rep for the Carter Center told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The service will also be attended by President Biden and first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, and former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Three other former first ladies — Laura Bush, Michelle Obama, and Melania Trump — are also expected to attend.
Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and first lady Marty Kemp, as well as Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens are also slated to be there.
Rosalynn Carter’s surviving grandchildren will serve as honorary pallbearers for the ceremony, which is being held at the Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church on Emory University’s campus.
Following the Atlanta service, Carter’s remains will be taken back to Plains, where a private burial service will be held Wednesday
The former first lady was born and spent most of her life in the tiny rural town, home to only 593 residents.
In Logan Park, just off Plains’ Main Street, a makeshift memorial for Carter has risen in front of the town’s Christmas tree, with a poster collage of pictures and the words “First Lady of Plains,” written across the bottom, according to the AJC. Several Main Street businesses have adorned their buildings with remembrances of Carter, with one coffee shop putting up a sign reading, “Well done good and faithful servant. You will be missed!”
“Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” Jimmy Carter said in a statement that announced his wife’s passing.
“She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.”
Carter and the former Rosalynn Smith had been married for 77 years, the longest-wed first couple in American history.
Last week the White House ordered US flags at official outposts to be flown at half-staff beginning Saturday and continuing through Wednesday.
The former first lady’s official White House portrait has also been adorned with black crepe.
“First Lady Rosalynn Carter walked her own path, inspiring a nation and the world along the way,” the president and first lady said in a statement last week.
“Throughout her incredible life as First Lady of Georgia and the First Lady of the United States, Rosalynn did so much to address many of society’s greatest needs,” they continued.
Rosalynn Carter had been an advocate of mental health support and joined her husband in championing humanitarian causes.
She is survived by Jimmy Carter, their four children, and 22 grandchildren and great-grand children.
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