US prepares state honours for Carter

Flags flew at half-staff across the United States yesterday as global tributes poured in for the life and legacy of Jimmy Carter – the longest-lived US president, who died aged 100.
The Georgia native, whose unlikely political ascent carried him from picking peanuts on the family farm to the Oval Office, was remembered in glowing eulogies as an ardent defender of human rights and champion of the downtrodden.
He will be honoured with public observances in his beloved home state and in Washington in the coming days.
The first president to reach triple digits, Carter had been in hospice care in his hometown of Plains since February 2023.
The Carter Centre, his post-presidential humanitarian and pro-democracy organisation, announced on Sunday that he had died “peacefully” at home “surrounded by his family”.
The White House flag was lowered to half-staff, while President Joe Biden has scheduled a state funeral for January 9 and declared it a National Day of Mourning.
Biden will eulogise Carter at the state funeral following eight days of ceremonies in Georgia and in Washington, the New York Times reported.
No formal announcements have been made about ceremonies in Georgia, although he is expected to be conveyed by motorcade to the state capitol in Atlanta, the New York Times reported, citing longstanding plans.
He will lie in repose for around 36 hours at the Carter Centre, the organisation said, before being flown to Washington to lie in state at the US Capitol for around the same duration.
He will be buried in Plains after the traditional televised funeral at Washington National Cathedral accorded to every US president.
Biden said in a heartfelt speech on Sunday that Carter had “lived a life measured not by words, but by his deeds” while the country’s living former presidents – from Bill Clinton to Donald Trump – lauded his public service, work ethic and commitment to justice.
The New York Stock Exchange – which just suffered its longest losing streak since Carter was in the White House – held a minute’s silence.
International tributes were led by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and China’s President Xi Jinping, who said he was “deeply saddened”, according to state media.
Pope Francis offered “heartfelt condolences”, the Vatican said, recalling Carter’s “firm commitment, motivated by deep Christian faith, to the cause of reconciliation and peace”.
Carter voted for last time in November’s presidential election, casting his ballot by mail, according to his family, after voicing determination to “live to vote for Kamala Harris”, the Democratic vice-president who was ultimately defeated by Trump.
He was the oldest ever former US president, outliving writers who contributed to his obituaries at the New York Times and Washington Post by seven years and 10 years respectively.
However, his longevity had seemed unlikely when the Southern Democrat revealed in 2015 that he had brain cancer.
Carter, a Democrat, became president in January 1977 after defeating incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 election.
His one-term presidency was marked by the 1978 Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt, bringing some stability to the Middle East.
The father-of-four lost in a landslide to Ronald Reagan in 1980.
The US Navy veteran defied the odds to enjoy a long post-presidency.
Yet in the decades that followed, Carter’s reputation grew through his humanitarian and diplomatic work and his efforts to build homes with his wife Rosalynn as part of Habitat for Humanity.
Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development”.
The first US president born in a hospital, he taught Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist, his church in Plains, well into his 90s.
He was married for 77 years to Rosalynn, a fellow Plains native.
By the time she died at age 96 on November 19, 2023, it was the longest presidential marriage in US history.
Carter’s final public appearance was at his wife’s memorial service, where he sat in the front row in a wheelchair.