ATLANTA – The celebration of the life of former President Jimmy Carter moved from Atlanta to the nation’s capitol Tuesday, with a day full of pageantry capped by a memorial service inside the Capitol Rotunda.
The nation’s top political leaders praised the many accomplishments of Georgia’s only president thus far not only during his four years in the White House in the late 1970s but during more than four decades after leaving office when he founded the Carter Center and built houses for the poor as a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity.
“Jimmy Carter established a new model for what it means to be a former president,” Vice President Kamala Harris said late Tuesday afternoon during the service inside the Rotunda. “(He) leaves an extraordinary post-presidential legacy.”
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he was just 4 years old when Carter was sworn in as president in 1977 and was the first president he remembers.
“President Carter’s life, his selfless service, his fight against cancer and his lasting contributions to his fellow man are truly remarkable,” Johnson said. “Whether he was in the White House or during his post-presidential years … President Carter was willing to roll up his sleeves to serve and get the job done.”
Carter died Dec. 29 at his home in Plains at the age of 100. His remains were transported from his hometown to the Carter Center in Atlanta last Saturday and flown to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday morning.
Upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews in suburban Maryland just outside of Washington Tuesday afternoon, his flag-draped casket was taken inside the city to the U.S. Navy Memorial to commemorate his service as a submarine engineer during the 1940s after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy.
There, a military honor guard placed his casket in a horse-drawn caisson for the trip to the Capitol. Members of his family walked behind along Pennsylvania Avenue, harkening back to Inauguration Day 1977, when Carter and wife Rosalynn stunned their Secret Service escorts by getting out of their car and walking so they could wave to the crowd of admirers.
During the ceremony, Harris recited a long list of accomplishments by Carter during his White House years, including a series of environmental protection bills, more than doubling the size of the nation’s national parks system, and appointing an unprecedented number of Blacks and women to federal judgeships.
But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Carter’s work after leaving the White House was just as impressive.
“Jimmy Carter knew that his status as a former president could bring attention to good causes,” Thune said. “But simply lending his name or maybe attending a gala or two wasn’t Jimmy Carter’s style. … Well into his nineties, he could be found with his hard hat and and tools on construction sites doing the practical work required to get families into homes.”
Carter will lie in state inside the Capitol Rotunda until Thursday morning, when a national funeral service will take place at the National Cathedral. President Joe Biden, who was away from Washington traveling on Tuesday, will deliver a eulogy.