Jimmy Carter laid to rest after dual funeral services in Washington and Georgia

Jimmy Carter's funeral celebrated his humility, public service, and lasting impact, uniting political rivals in tribute.

Jimmy Carter was celebrated Thursday (January 9, 2025) for his personal humility and public service before, during and after his presidency in a funeral at Washington National Cathedral featuring the kind of pageantry the 39th U.S. president typically eschewed. It was followed by an intimate hometown funeral near where he was born a century ago.

All of Carter's living successors attended in Washington, with President Joe Biden, who was the first sitting senator to endorse his 1976 run for the White House, eulogising his longtime friend. Mr. Biden and others took turns in the morning praising Carter's record — which many historians have appraised more favourably since he lost his bid for a second term in 1980 — and extolling his character.

The dual ceremonies in Washington and Plains, Georgia, provided a moment of national comity in a notably partisan era and offered a striking portrait of a president who was once judged a political failure, only for his life ultimately to be recognized as having lasting national and global impact.

“He built houses for people who needed homes,” said Joshua Carter, a grandson who recalled how Carter regularly taught Sunday school in Plains after leaving the White House. “He eliminated diseases in forgotten places. He waged peace anywhere in the world, wherever he saw a chance. He loved people.”

Jason Carter, another grandson, wryly noted his grandparents' frugality, such as washing and reusing Ziploc bags, and his grandfather's struggles with his cellphone.

“They were small-town people who never forgot who they were and where they were from, no matter what happened in their lives,” said Jason, who chairs the Carter Center, a global humanitarian operation founded by Jimmy and his late wife, Rosalynn Carter.

At the national service, former President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump, who have mocked each other for years going back to Trump fanning conspiracy theories about Obama's citizenship, sat next to each other and talked for several minutes, even sharing a laugh.