Biden declares January 9 a day of mourning for Carter
A jogger passes flags flying at half-staff at the Washington Monument on the National Mall following the death of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, in Washington, Dec. 30, 2024.
Washington —
President Joe Biden has declared January 9 a national day of mourning for former President Jimmy Carter and announced Monday that all federal government offices would be closed that day as a show of respect for the 39th U.S. president, who died Sunday at age 100.
"I call on the American people to assemble on that day in their respective places of worship, there to pay homage to the memory of President James Earl Carter Jr.," Biden said in a formal declaration issued late Sunday. "I invite the people of the world who share our grief to join us in this solemn observance."
President Joe Biden speaks about the death of former President Jimmy Carter, Dec. 29, 2024, at the Company House Hotel in Christiansted, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.
The solemn event January 9 in the nation's capital will draw all the living American presidents and a host of dignitaries. Biden also ordered the U.S. flag to be flown at half-staff for 30 days from the date of Carter's death at public buildings, military posts and U.S. government buildings overseas.
Events begin Saturday
Biden has bestowed upon Carter a state funeral, a three-stage multiday event coordinated by the U.S. military that includes observances in the capital and ceremonies in the home state of the deceased. Carter has repeatedly expressed his wish to be buried in his front yard in the small town of Plains, Georgia, beside his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn. She died in 2023. Carter was in hospice care for two years before his own death at 100 made him the longest-living former president in U.S. history.
In photos: Tribute to former President Jimmy Carter
1/11The flag over the White House flies at half-staff following the death of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, in Washington, Dec. 30, 2024.
2/11U.S. President Joe Biden speaks on the death of former U.S. President and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Jimmy Carter, who died at the age of 100, at the Company House Hotel, in Christiansted, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, Dec. 29, 2024.
3/11A montage of the frontpages of some Britain's newspapers featuring reaction to death of the former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in London, Dec. 30, 2024.
4/11With the U.S. Capitol in the distance, flags fly at half-staff at the Washington Monument on the National Mall following the death of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, in Washington, Dec. 30, 2024.
5/11Jumbe Sebunya of Eswatini pays his respects to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who died at the age of 100, by the sign of The Carter Presidential Center, in Atlanta, Georgia, Dec. 30, 2024.
6/11Flowers, peanuts and a candle lie by The Carter Presidential Center's sign, after the death of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter at the age of 100, in Atlanta, Georgia, Dec. 29, 2024.
7/11A statue of a peanut in honor of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who was a peanut farmer, stands in Plains, Georgia, Dec. 30, 2024.
8/11Flags fly at half-mast for the late former U.S. President Jimmy Carter at Downing Street, in London, Dec. 30, 2024.
9/11A sign in honor of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter hangs in Plains, Georgia, Dec. 30, 2024.
10/11A mural in memory of Jimmy Carter is painted on a storefront at the Jimmy Carter National Historic Park in Plains, Georgia, Dec. 30, 2024.
11/11A sign in memory of Jimmy Carter is on display on a storefront at the Jimmy Carter National Historic Park in Plains, Georgia, Dec. 30, 2024.
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Observances for this peanut-farmer-turned-president will stretch over several days and involve coordination by local, state and national law enforcement, the military and the countless elected officials and members of the public expected to pay their respects.
It begins Saturday, in Georgia. Members of Carter's Secret Service detail will accompany his hearse as it travels in a motorcade through Plains. The motorcade will pass his family's farm, where members of the National Park Service will ring the farm bell 39 times to symbolize his status as the 39th president. The motorcade will proceed to the state Capitol, in Atlanta, where it will be greeted by the governor, the city's mayor, members of the state Legislature and state troopers.
FILE - Former President Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter pose for a photo with President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden at the Carters' home in Plains, Georgia, April 30, 2021.
Carter's remains will then be taken to the Carter Presidential Center for an afternoon service. He will lie in repose through Tuesday, January 7.
On that day, the president's surviving family will accompany his remains as they travel on a special Air Force plane to Washington. In Washington, the former naval officer's remains will be taken by hearse motorcade to the U.S. Navy Memorial. A horse-drawn ceremonial procession will complete his trip from there to the U.S. Capitol, where military body bearers will carry him into the heart of the building, the rotunda. Members of Congress will hold an afternoon service, and his body will lie in state there, with a military guard of honor, until the morning of January 9.
The Washington National Cathedral will hold the national funeral service at 10 a.m. That structure has played host to several previous state funerals, including those of former Presidents Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush.
Carter's funeral is likely to be attended by all five living American presidents — a list that includes George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, former and future President Donald Trump, and Biden. Biden, at 82, is now the eldest statesman of that group.
Biden inadvertently revealed, in March last year at a national Democratic Party event, that Carter, also a Democrat, had asked him to deliver his eulogy.
In Photos: A look back at the life of President Jimmy Carter
1/24Gov. Jimmy Carter, holding daughter Amy, and Rosalynn Carter, right, listen while Lt. Gov. Lester Maddox makes his acceptance speech, Jan. 12, 1971, Atlanta, Georgia.
2/24Jimmy Carter, left, talks and President Gerald Ford, right, listens during the third presidential debate at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, Oct. 22, 1976.
3/24Chief Justice Warren Burger administers the oath of office to Jimmy Carter (R) as the 39th President of the United Sates, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 1977.
4/24President Jimmy Carter, left, is dwarfed by a turbo generator at the Westinghouse Corp. plant, east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Jan. 30, 1977 where he went to emphasize the serious fuel shortage.
5/24President Jimmy Carter, the Shah of Iran, Empress Farah and Mrs. Roslynn Carter on the balcony at the White House in Washington, Nov. 15, 1977.
6/24U.S. President Jimmy Carter, right, and Britain's Queen Elizabeth II are photographed with French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, at Buckingham Palace in London, May 1977.
7/24President Jimmy Carter and Chinese Vice Premier Teng Hsiao-ping hold hands outside the Oval Office of the White House, Jan. 30, 1979.
8/24(from left to right) Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin clasp hands on the north lawn of the White House in Washington, after signing the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, March 26, 1979.
9/24President Jimmy Carter bows his head during a Prayer Service at Washington Cathedral, Nov. 15, 1979, for the American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran.
10/24Six Americans who escaped from Iran with the help of the Canadian government meet with President Jimmy Carter in the Oval Office in Washington, Feb. 1, 1980.
11/24U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces new sanctions against Iran in retaliation for taking American hostages, at the White House, Washington, D.C., April 7, 1980.
12/24President Jimmy Carter uses an Indian quill pen to sign H.R.7919 the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980 at a ceremony at the White House, Oct. 10, 1980.
13/24U.S. President Jimmy Carter and California Governor Ronald Reagan during a U.S. presidential election debate in Cleveland, Ohio, Oct. 28, 1980.
14/24Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Jan. 21, 1981, in Wiesbaden, Germany, arrives at the U.S. Air Force hospital here to greet the hostage released by Iran after 445 days of captivity.
15/24After seven hours of talks at the Bosnian Serb headquarters in Pale, Bosnia, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, center, Bosnia Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, left, and Bosnian Serb army Commander Ratko Mladic, right, signed a declaration proposing a four-month ceasefire in the Bosnian war, Dec. 19, 1994.
16/24Former President Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, Sept. 22, 2009.
17/24FILE - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter speaks with a polling official at a polling station outside Juba, southern Sudan, April 13, 2010. Carter's organization, the Carter Center, deployed a team of observers for the elections. Widespread problems with voting prompted Sudanese authorities to extend the voting period from three to five days.
18/24Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter (L) talk during a meeting in Havana, March 30, 2011. The woman in the center is a translator.
19/24Former first lady Rosalynn Carter, left, looks on as former President Jimmy Carter and grandson Errol, 4, look at a birthday cake during his 90th birthday celebration held at Georgia Southwestern University, Oct. 4, 2014, in Americus, Georgia.
20/24Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jason Carter speaks during a campaign stop as his grandfather, former President Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalynn, left, look on, Oct. 27, 2014, in Columbus.
21/24Former President Barack Obama, speaks as fellow former Presidents, from left, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton look on during a hurricanes relief concert in College Station, Texas, Oct. 21, 2017.
22/24Former President Jimmy Carter holds hands with his wife Rosalynn Carter as they work with other volunteers for Habitat for Humanity in Mishawaka, Indiana, Aug. 27, 2018. (Robert Franklin/South Bend Tribune)
23/24Former President Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter pose for a photo with President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden at the home of the Carter's in Plains, Georgia, April 30, 2021.
24/24Amy Carter, left, raises her glass during a toast to her parents former President Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter during a reception to celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary, July 10, 2021, in Plains, Georgia.
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In his statement late Sunday, Biden described Carter as "a man of character, courage and compassion, whose lifetime of service defined him as one of the most influential statesmen in our history."
He continued: "He embodied the very best of America: A humble servant of God and the people. A heroic champion of global peace and human rights, and an honorable leader whose moral clarity and hopeful vision lifted our nation and changed our world."
The end, with Rosalynn
Carter's final voyage happens in Georgia, on the afternoon of January 9. His family will hold a private service at the Carters' home church, Maranatha Baptist Church.
And then the motorcade will wind its way back along those familiar roads, to Plains, and to the low-slung home the Carters built, where they raised their children, and where they settled after the White House. The U.S. Navy will perform a missing-man formation flyover right before Carter is lowered into his final resting place, next to Rosalynn.
