By Jonathan Allen and Brad Brooks
(Reuters) – The state funeral for Jimmy Carter, the former US president who died on Sunday at the age of 100, will take place on January 9 at the Washington National Cathedral, according to the US military.
US President Joe Biden, who said last year that Carter had asked him to deliver the eulogy at his funeral, ordered January 9 to be a national day of mourning for Carter across the United States.
Carter’s six-day formal funeral begins Saturday as his remains travel in procession through his hometown of Plains, Georgia, the military said in a statement.
The motorcade carrying Carter will stop at the farm where he grew up. There, the National Park Service will ring the historic farm bell 39 times – Carter was the 39th President of the United States.
Carter’s remains will then be transported to Atlanta, where he will lie in state at the Carter Presidential Center until the morning of January 7. His body will then be flown to Washington, D.C., where he will lie in state in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol until his state funeral.
The family will hold a private funeral and burial in Georgia later on January 9, following the ceremony at the Washington National Cathedral.
Carter will be buried in a plot next to his wife, Rosalynn Carter, on the grounds of their longtime home in Plains.
Carter, a Democrat, became president in January 1977 after defeating incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 election. His single term in office was marked by the 1978 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, bringing some stability to the Middle East.
Carter devoted his long post-presidential career to humanitarian work, for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize. World leaders and former U.S. presidents paid tribute to a man they hailed as compassionate, humble and committed to peace in the Middle East.
