By Jeff Mason, Katharine Jackson and Bo Erickson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Jimmy Carter, the late one-term U.S. president who was widely admired for his humanitarian work after leaving the White House, was remembered during his state funeral on Thursday as a man of integrity and put kindness above all party politics.
Hundreds of mourners, including President Joe Biden and four living former U.S. presidents, gathered at the National Cathedral in Washington, where a military guard laid Carter’s (NYSE: ) flag-draped casket at the start of a roughly two-hour service that included tributes to Carter’s long life.
Fellow Democrat Biden praised the 39th president, who died Dec. 29 at age 100, saying Carter’s life was “the story of a man who never let the tide of politics distract him from his mission to serve and shape the world.”
“The man had character,” Biden said.
Tens of thousands of Americans have gathered through the Rotunda of the US Capitol over the past two days to pay their respects to Carter, who was president from 1977 to 1981 and was beset by a faltering economy and the Iran hostage crisis. Many mourners extolled him as an example of decency and humility for today’s breed of high-ranking politicians.
Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who will return to office on January 20, sat in the row behind Biden at the cathedral. Carter endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
As Trump prepares to crack down on illegal immigration and
sparking controversy with American friends or allies like Canada, Panama and Denmark, Biden highlighted Carter’s virtues of compassion and respect.
“The friendship of Jimmy Carter taught me … that strength of character is more than the title or the power we have. It’s the strength to understand that everyone should be treated with dignity, with respect,” Biden said.
“It’s about asking ourselves… What are the values that drive our spirit? Do we act out of fear or hope, ego or generosity? Do we show grace? Do we keep faith when it’s most tested?”
Ted Mondale, son of Walter Mondale, who served as vice president under Carter, read a eulogy for his late father that also provided some kind of contrast to the current era of disinformation, saying, “We told the truth. We followed the law.”
Before the start of the service, Trump shook the hand of his former vice president, Mike Pence, with whom he clashed after Pence refused to go along with his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
Trump sat next to former President Barack Obama; the two men chatted amiably as the opening music played. To Obama’s right sat Laura and George W. Bush and Hillary and Bill Clinton.
Biden and First Lady Jill Biden arrived arm-in-arm and took front-row seats next to Vice President Kamala Harris and Mr. Douglas Emhoff.
‘PAW-PAW’ FROM THE PLAIN
Carter was born a peanut farmer in Plains, Georgia. He was the governor of that state from 1971 to 1975. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his humanitarian work.
One of his grandsons, Jason Carter, who serves as chairman of the Carter Center’s Board of Trustees, said the man he called “Paw-paw” and his grandmother Rosalynn Carter, who died in 2023, remained humble and true to their values, choosing to stay in his modest home in Ravnice.
“Yes, they spent four years in the governor’s mansion and four years in the White House, but they spent the other 92 years at home in Plains, Georgia,” Jason Carter said.
Carter’s remains returned to Plains.
“I never saw a difference between his public persona and his private persona. He was the same person no matter who he was with or where he was, and to me that’s the definition of integrity. That honesty was accompanied by love,” Jason Carter added.
Carter’s daughter, Amy, joined other family members at the funeral. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Vice President-elect JD Vance and Biden’s son Hunter were also among the mourners. Former Vice Presidents Al Gore and Pence sat next to each other.
RIVALS TURNED INTO FRIENDS
Jimmy Carter won the White House by defeating Republican President Gerald Ford (NYSE: ) in the 1976 US election, in the years following Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal. The former political rivals formed an enduring friendship, and Carter eulogized Ford after his death in 2006.
In one of the emotional highlights of the service, Ford’s son, Steven, read a eulogy his father had written for Carter on Thursday.
“Jimmy and I respected each other as adversaries even before we were dear friends,” Ford said in his father’s words. “Jimmy knew my political vulnerabilities and successfully pointed them out. I didn’t like it now, but little could I have known that the outcome of that 1976 election would produce one of my deepest and most enduring friendships.”
Mourners who paid tribute to Carter earlier at the US Capitol said they admired the late Southern Baptist, who played a key role in negotiating the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel as a gentle man, not a partisan fighter.
“We’ve come so far from what Jimmy Carter was as a person and it’s kind of sad,” said Dorian DeHaan, 67, who traveled some 275 miles (440 km) from Sugar Loaf, New York, to pay her respects. “I hope this will be a reminder to people of what we need to get back to — that it’s not about power, it’s about people.”
While waiting in line for a public viewing outside the Capitol, DeHaan said her daughter married into the family of the president’s younger sister, Ruth, presenting an opportunity to meet the former president in Plains, Georgia.
“But it’s a sad moment,” DeHaan said. “It’s the end of an era and I think we’ve lost a bit of true faith in humanity, in our presidency.”
