Nation’s Leaders Will Gather to Honor Carter at Washington Cathedral
The New York Times
A state funeral for the 39th president on Thursday will bring together all five living presidents and feature a eulogy from President Biden.
A weeklong series of tributes to former President Jimmy Carter culminates on Thursday with a solemn state funeral in Washington that will bring together all five of the nation’s living presidents, who will temporarily put down their partisan swords to bid farewell to one of their own.
Mr. Carter, who has lain in state for the past two days at the Capitol, will be brought to Washington National Cathedral for a 10 a.m. service featuring all the rituals of a national send-off. Then he will be flown back to his hometown, Plains, Ga., for burial outside the modest ranch house where he lived most of his life and died last week.
The service represents the pinnacle of America’s honors to its 39th president, who sought to heal the nation after the traumas of the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War as he presided over a tumultuous time, from 1977 to 1981. President Biden will deliver a eulogy, as will Jason Carter, the former president’s grandson, and Stuart E. Eizenstat, a longtime friend and White House domestic adviser to Mr. Carter.
Eulogies that former President Gerald R. Ford and former Vice President Walter F. Mondale wrote before their own deaths will be read by their sons, Steven Ford and Ted Mondale. Mr. Carter defeated Mr. Ford in the 1976 election but they later became friends, while Mr. Mondale was his close partner for four years in the White House.
Readings will also be offered by Jason Carter and Joshua Carter, another grandson, and Andrew Young, the civil rights leader who served as Mr. Carter’s ambassador to the U.N., will deliver a homily. Among the musical offerings, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood will sing John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
Also expected to attend the service will be former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, as well as President-elect Donald J. Trump, making for the first gathering of the so-called presidents club since Mr. Trump’s election win in November. The same group is expected to gather again just 11 days later for his inauguration.
