Body of Jimmy Carter to be taken to Washington to lie in state

At 10:00 EST, the body of Carter and his family will travel aboard Special Air Mission 39 from Dobbins Air Reserve Base to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

After that, Carter’s remains will be transferred in a ceremony to a hearse, which will be carried in a motorcade alongside his family to the US Navy Memorial.

A horse-drawn military carriage will take his remains from the hearse at 14:00 to the US Capitol, where members of the US Congress will come to pay their respects during a service at 15:00 at the Rotunda.

Carter’s body will lie in state at the Capitol for two days, during which period the public can once again come to pay their respects.

The largest funeral celebration for Carter will take place at the Washington National Cathedral at 10:00 on Thursday.

The US federal government will be closed for a national day of mourning, President Joe Biden said in an executive order.

US flags are also flying at half-mast on all federal buildings for 30 days.

Biden will also deliver a eulogy at the Washington funeral service, which will likely also be attended by other former presidents and first ladies. Donald Trump is expected to be present, ahead of his return to the White House on 20 January.

Carter’s body will then have one more stop to make before he is finally laid to rest. He will return once more to Georgia for a private funeral service in Plains, where he will be buried alongside his wife, Rosalynn Carter, who died in November 2023 aged 96.

When Carter was lying in state in Georgia, mourners from across his home state and around the world came to Atlanta to honour his life.

High school student Ethan Cyganiewicz’s family drove five hours overnight, arriving in Atlanta at four in the morning on 5 January. The 15-year-old described the gravity he felt while paying his respects to Carter, a former peanut farmer who lived longer than any president in American history.

“You just feel the majesty of the moment. You’re like in the presence of a man who sat behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. It surely is something,” Ethan told the BBC.