AMERICUS, Ga. Hundreds turned out to salute Rosalynn Carter on Monday with the former U.S. first lady and global humanitarians final journey from her rural hometown to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta as her family began three days of memorials following her death at age 96.
The former president, who is 99 and has spent the past 10 months in home hospice care, plans to attend a memorial church service Tuesday in Atlanta for his wife and partner of more than 77 years, The Carter Center confirmed. Rosalynn Carter died Nov. 19.
The tributes started Monday morning as Rosalynn Carters casket traveled by motorcade through the Carters native Sumter County, where well-wishers gathered along the route in their tiny hometown of Plains and attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the college from which she graduated in 1946.
Lyndea Brown drove to the short ceremony at Georgia Southwestern State University from nearby Albany, saying she wanted to salute a remarkable woman who attended local cancer benefits and fought for rural health services.
They were always real hometown people, Brown said. We dont get presidents and first ladies like that anymore, people who have true hometown roots and understand what its like to grow corn and peanuts and whatever else and to struggle over health care.
During the stop at Rosalynn Carters alma mater, her four children Jack, Chip, Jeff and Amy watched as wreaths of white flowers were placed beside a statue of their mother on the campus where she founded the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving to advocate for millions of unpaid caregivers in American households.
Generations of the Carter family including the former first ladys grandchildren and great-grandchildren accompanied the hearse to Atlanta, where she was to lie in repose as members of the public paid respects Monday evening at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum.
Two funerals, set for Tuesday in Atlanta and Wednesday in Plains, are for invited guests. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, longtime friends of the Carters, lead the dignitaries expected to attend the Atlanta service. Rosalynn Carters burial Wednesday in Plains is private.
The schedule, a product of detailed planning that involved the former first couple, reflects the range of Rosalynn Carters interests and impact. That includes her advocacy for better mental health treatment and the elevation of caregiving, her role as Jimmy Carters closest adviser and her status as matriarch of Plains and Maranatha Baptist Church, where she and the former president served in various roles after leaving the White House in 1981.
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