Services for former first lady Rosalynn Carter begin
ATLANTA (Atlanta News First/Gray News) - Monday started a three-day span of tributes and memorial events planned to honor former First Lady Rosalynn Carter.
The renowned humanitarian died at her home in Plains, Georgia, on Nov. 19 at the age of 96.
A motorcade with the Carter family traveled from Plains to Phoebe Sumter Medical Center, where former members of her U.S. Secret Service protection detail served honorary pallbearers during a short ceremony.
Then they headed to Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus, where both Carters went to college, for a formal wreath-laying ceremony.
The Carters’ four children — Jack, Chip, Jeff and Amy — watched as wreaths of white flowers were placed beside a statue of their mother on the campus where she founded the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving to advocate for millions of unpaid caregivers in American households.
The Carter Center confirmed that Jimmy Carter was not in today’s motorcade. But the Carters’ grandson, Jason Carter, told CNN his grandfather is planning on traveling to Atlanta to attend a tribute service for Rosalynn at Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church on Tuesday.
The former president, who is 99 and is mourning his wife of 77 years, has been in at-home hospice care since February.
Once the ceremony ended in Americus, the motorcade continued to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, where Rosalynn will lie in repose. The campus, near downtown, includes the library and museum, and The Carter Center.
Mourners are already gathered outside the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum. “We love you Mrs. Carter,” a chalkboard reads. “RIP.”
On Tuesday, Rosalynn’s remains will leave the Carter Presidential Center in a ceremony scheduled for 11:30 a.m. The motorcade will then go to Glenn Memorial Church at Emory University, where an invitation only tribute service will be held.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, longtime friends of the Carters, lead the dignitaries expected to attend the Atlanta service.
On Wednesday, the funeral procession will return to Plains, Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter’s hometown. At 11 a.m., a service for family and friends is scheduled at Maranatha Baptist Church, where the Carters attended and taught for decades. Then at 12:30 p.m., Rosalynn’s casket will leave for a private burial at the Carters’ family home.
The services will be available for streaming online.
Copyright 2023 WANF via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
