Jimmy Carter lauded for humility and service at Washington funeral

Jimmy Carter has been for his humility and public service before, during and after his presidency during a funeral at Washington National Cathedral.

All of Mr Carter’s living successors were in attendance, with President Joe Biden, the first sitting senator to endorse his 1976 run for the White House, delivering a eulogy.

Mr Biden and others took turns praising Mr Carter’s record — which many historians have appraised more favourably since losing his bid for a second term in 1980 — and extolling his character.

“He built houses for people who needed homes,” said Joshua Carter, a grandson who recalled how Mr Carter regularly taught Sunday school in his native hamlet of Plains, Georgia, 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, praised his grandfather and his wife Rosalynn, who died in 2023. He wryly noted the couple’s frugality, such as washing and reusing Ziploc backs, and the former president’s struggles with using his mobile phone.

“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 Centre, a global humanitarian operation founded by the former president after leaving office.

The extraordinary gathering offered an unusual moment of comity for the nation in a factionalised, hyper-partisan era.

Former president Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump, political rivals who have mocked each other for years, sat next to each other and talked for several minutes, even sharing a laugh.

Mr Biden, who will leave office in 11 days, hinted at politics in repeating several times that “character” was Mr Carter’s chief attribute.

Mr Biden said the former president taught him the imperative that “everyone should be treated with dignity and respect”.

“We have an obligation to give hate no safe harbour,” Mr Biden said, also noting the importance of standing up to “abuse in power”.

Those comments echoed Mr Biden’s typical criticisms of Mr Trump, his predecessor and successor.

As Mr Trump went to his seat before the service began, he shook hands with Mike Pence in a rare interaction with his former vice president.

The two men had a falling out over Mr Pence’s refusal to help Mr Trump overturn his election defeat to Mr Biden four years ago.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Mr Trump in November, entered afterwards and was not seen interacting with him.

Mr Carter died on December 29 at the age of 100, living so long that two of the eulogies were written by people who died before him — his vice president Walter Mondale and his White House predecessor Gerald Ford.

“By fate of a brief season, Jimmy Carter and I were rivals,” said the eulogy from Mr Ford, which was read by his son Steven.

“But for the many wonderful years that followed, friendship bonded us as no two presidents since John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.”

Mr Carter defeated Mr Ford in 1976 but the presidents and their wives became close friends, and Mr Carter eulogised Mr Ford at his own funeral.

Days of formal ceremonies and remembrances from political leaders, business titans and rank-and-file citizens have honoured Mr Carter for decency and using a prodigious work ethic to do more than obtain political power.

The proceedings began on Thursday morning as military service members carried Mr Carter’s flag-draped casket down the east steps of the US Capitol, where the former president had laid in state, to be transported to the cathedral. There was also a 21-gun salute.

At the cathedral, the Armed Forces Chorus sang the hymn Be Still My Soul before Mr Carter’s casket was brought inside.

Mourners also heard from 92-year-old Andrew Young, a former Atlanta mayor, congressman and UN ambassador during the Carter administration.

Mr Carter outlived much of his Cabinet and inner circle, but remained especially close to Mr Young — a friendship that brought together a white Georgian and black Georgian who grew up in the era of Jim Crow segregation.

“Jimmy Carter was a blessing that helped create a great United States of America,” Mr Young said.

Thursday concludes six days of national rites that began in Plains, Georgia, where Mr Carter was born in 1924, lived most of his life and died after 22 months in hospice care.

Ceremonies continued in Atlanta and Washington, where Mr Carter, a former Naval officer, engineer and peanut farmer, has lain in state since Tuesday.

After the morning service in Washington, Mr Carter’s remains, his four children and extended family will return to Georgia on a Boeing 747 that serves as Air Force One when the sitting president is aboard.