Americans wave goodbye to US president Jimmy Carter

Americans have been gathering to remember Jimmy Carter as the state funeral that took place last week marked the inauguration of the 39th President of the United States.

Saturday’s trip from Carter’s home in Plains, Georgia, to Atlanta was the start of a six-day farewell to the president, who died last month at the age of 100.

Carter will fly to Washington DC on Tuesday where he will spend the night at the US Capitol before a meeting on Thursday that will feature speeches from former US Presidents.

Mourners from across Georgia and around the world have gathered in Atlanta to pay their respects.

Among those who came Saturday was Heather Brooks, an Atlanta resident and “admiring” Democrat.

“[I] I found him to be always kind, sociable, a wonderful person who has done so much for the world, not just America,” Ms Brooks told the BBC.

He said he had met Carter several times and described him as “strong but humble”.

The family of high school student Ethan Cyganiewicz drove five hours through the night, arriving in Atlanta at 4 a.m. Sunday. He also described the gravity he felt in paying his respects to President Carter.

“You just feel the greatness of the moment. It’s like you’re in the presence of someone who sat behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. Absolutely,” the 15-year-old told the BBC.

Ethan said he thinks Carter was “mediocre” as a president, but appreciates his philanthropy and humility.

“He was the last president who cared about the American people,” Ethan said.

Paige Alexander, director of the Carter Center, told the BBC that the former president should be remembered for his “honesty and integrity”.

“I mean, at the end of the day, you have a politician who can say in a conversation, you know, ‘Honorable President.’ [Gerald] Ford and I don’t agree on these issues,” Ms. Alexander said. “You don’t hear that now.”

The lawn outside the Carter Center has been overflowing with flowers, handwritten notes and bags of peanuts, which tell of Carter’s early years as a peanut farmer on the Plains.

Those who knew the former president well, such as Jill Stuckey, a former friend of the Carter family, said he will miss his commitment — and that of his wife, Rosalynn — to helping others.

It was something Ms Stuckey said the family was committed to “until the day they died”.

“I don’t know how we’re going to adjust to a world without President Carter,” he told the BBC.

On Saturday, the motorcade passed the Methodist church where the Carters were married in 1946, and the house where they lived and died.

The former president will be buried alongside Rosalynn, who died in late 2023 at the age of 96.

The group also stopped in front of Carter’s boyhood home and family farm outside the Plains. The site is now part of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park, which tolled the old farm’s bell 39 times Saturday to honor the 39th president.

The vehicles stopped at the Georgia State capitol building for a moment of silence led by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.

Mourners will be able to visit Carter at the presidential library on January 5 and January 6 before he is flown to Washington DC on January 7.

For two days he will lie in state in the US Capitol Rotunda, where people will be able to pay their respects.

His life will be commemorated at the Washington National Cathedral on January 9 in a service attended by several former presidents.

On top of the political praise Carter is expected to receive in the coming days will be a personal tribute from his family.

For Jason Carter, the former president’s grandson, it’s the connection he had with people that he will miss.

“I think that for many people in the country he was a symbol of love and respect and I think it’s good to celebrate,” the former head of the Georgian government told the BBC.