Current:Home > reviewsAP PHOTOS: Rosalynn Carter’s farewell tracing her 96 years from Plains to the world and back -Thrive Capital Insights
AP PHOTOS: Rosalynn Carter’s farewell tracing her 96 years from Plains to the world and back
View
Date:2025-04-14 22:51:04
PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Former U.S. first lady Rosalynn Carter was memorialized this week with three days of public ceremonies and tributes that spanned the breadth of her long life, from her roots in Plains, Georgia, to the White House and across the world through four decades of work as a global humanitarian.
Associated Press photojournalists documented the tributes along the way.
They captured the pageantry that comes with funerals for a White House occupant, as well as the hometown adoration for a first lady who lived more than 80 of her 96 years in the same town where she was born. They captured the services that reflected her deeply held Christian faith, which her minister said she always “took outside the walls” of the church. And they reflected the grief of her 99-year-old husband, Jimmy Carter. The 39th president left home hospice care to attend public remembrances in Atlanta and Plains, visibly diminished and frail but determined to lead the nation in saying goodbye to his wife of more than 77 years.
Tributes began Monday in Americus, Georgia, with a wreath-laying ceremony on the campus of Georgia Southwestern State University. That’s where Rosalynn Carter graduated in 1946 and, after her tenure as first lady, founded the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers to advocate for millions of Americans taking care of family members and others without adequate support.
She lay in repose Monday at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, a reflection of their term in Washington from 1977 to 1981, when she established herself as the most politically active first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt. Her husband spent the night steps away at The Carter Center, which they co-founded in 1982 to advocate for democracy, resolve conflict and eradicate disease in the developing nations — and for her to continue what became a half-century of advocating for better mental health treatment in America.
On Tuesday, she was honored in Atlanta at a ceremony that brought together every living U.S. first lady, President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton. They joined the Carter family, dozens of Secret Service agents and 1,000-plus other mourners for a service replete with a symphony chorus, honor guards and a grand organ.
In Plains, her intimate hometown funeral was held Wednesday at her beloved Maranatha Baptist Church, which the Carters joined when they returned to Georgia after his 1980 presidential defeat. Her family, including Jimmy, wore leis. It was a tribute to how she adored her time in Hawaii during her husband’s Navy years and how she loved learning to hula dance while there; her Secret Service code name was “Dancer.”
In a slow-moving motorcade, she was escorted one final time through Plains, past the high school where she was valedictorian during World War II, through the commercial district where she became Jimmy Carter’s indispensable partner in the peanut business, past the old train depot where she helped run his 1976 presidential campaign.
She was buried in a private ceremony on the family property, in view of the front porch of the home they built before Carter’s first political campaign in 1962.
— Associated Press national politics reporter Bill Barrow
veryGood! (5)
Related
- Most popular books of the week: See what topped USA TODAY's bestselling books list
- Wicked Los Angeles Premiere: See All the Celebrity Red Carpet Fashion
- ATTN: Land’s End Just Revealed Their Christmas Sale—Score up to 60% off Everything (Yes We Mean It)
- 'Outer Banks' Season 5: Here's what we know so far about Netflix series' final season
- Man charged with murder in death of beloved Detroit-area neurosurgeon
- Democratic US Sen. Jacky Rosen is reelected in Nevada, securing battleground seat
- Women win majority of seats in New Mexico Legislature in showcase of determination and joy
- Ariana Grande's Parents Joan Grande and Edward Butera Support Her at Wicked Premiere
- 51-year-old Andy Macdonald puts on Tony Hawk-approved Olympic skateboard showing
- Kirk Herbstreit's late dog Ben gets emotional tribute on 'College GameDay,' Herbstreit cries on set
Ranking
- Who's hosting 'Saturday Night Live' tonight? Musical guest, how to watch Dec. 14 episode
- Cowboys QB Dak Prescott plans to undergo season-ending surgery, according to reports
- Florida’s abortion vote and why some women feel seen: ‘Even when we win, we lose’
- ACLU asks Arizona Supreme Court to extend ‘curing’ deadline after vote-count delays
- US wholesale inflation accelerated in November in sign that some price pressures remain elevated
- Gunman who wounded a man before fleeing into the subway is arrested, New York City police say
- How Wicked Director Jon M. Chu Joined L.A. Premiere From the Hospital as Wife Preps to Give Birth
- With Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase leading way, Bengals running out of time to save season
Recommendation
Costco membership growth 'robust,' even amid fee increase: What to know about earnings release
Georgia governor declares emergency in 23 counties inundated with heavy rain and flooding
Celery is one of our most underappreciated vegetables. Here's why it shouldn't be.
'Like herding cats': Llamas on the loose in Utah were last seen roaming train tracks
In ‘Nickel Boys,’ striving for a new way to see
Community grieves 10-year-old student hit and killed by school bus in Missouri
Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia files lawsuit vs. NCAA in hopes of gaining extra eligibility
Cynthia Erivo Proves She Can Defy Gravity at the Wicked Premiere