Americans waved goodbye to US President Jimmy Carter

Americans are gathering to honor Jimmy Carter as the nearly week-long state funeral for the 39th US president begins.

Saturday’s procession from Carter’s home in Plains, Ga., to Atlanta marked the start of a six-day public farewell to the statesman, who died last month at age 100.

Carter will be flown to Washington on Tuesday, where he will officiate at the US Capitol before Thursday’s service, which will include speeches by former US presidents.

Mourners from the state of Georgia and around the world gathered in Atlanta to pay their respects.

Among those in attendance Saturday was Heather Brooks, an Atlanta resident and “big fan” of the Democrat.

“(I) found him to be always kind, responsive, just a great guy who has done so much for the world, not just America,” Ms Brooks told the BBC.

She said she had met Carter several times and described him as “strong but so humble.”

High school student Ethan Tsyganevich’s family drove five hours through the night, arriving in Atlanta at four in the morning on Sunday. He described the solemnity he felt as he paid his respects to President Carter.

“One just feels the grandeur of the moment. You are as if in the presence of a man who sat behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office. It’s definitely something,” the 15-year-old girl told the BBC.

Eaton said he considered Carter “average” as a president, but appreciated his humanitarian work and his humility.

“He was the last president who really cared about the American people,” Eaton said.

Paige Alexander, head of the Carter Center, told the BBC that the former president should be remembered for his “honesty and integrity”.

“I mean, you end up with a politician who would say in a debate, you know, ‘honorable President (Gerald) Ford and I don’t agree on these issues,'” Ms. Alexander said. “You can’t hear it now.”

The lawn outside the Carter Center is overflowing with flowers, handwritten tributes and bags of peanuts, a nod to Carter’s early years as a Plains peanut farmer.

Those who knew the former president well, such as Jill Stuckey, a longtime friend of the Carter family, said she will miss his – and his wife Rosalyn’s – commitment to helping others.

It’s something Ms Stuckey said the couple committed to “until the day they died”.

“I don’t know how we’re going to get used to a world without President Carter,” she told the BBC.

On Saturday, the motorcade passed the Methodist church where the Carters were married in 1946 and the home where they lived and died.

The former president will be buried there alongside Rosalyn, who died in late 2023. 96 years old.

The procession also stopped outside Carter’s childhood home and family farm just outside of Plains. The site is now part of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park, which on Saturday rang the old village bell 39 times in honor of the 39th president.

The motorcade then stopped at the Georgia State Capitol for a moment of silence led by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.

Mourners will be able to visit Carter at the Presidential Library on January 5 and January 6 before he is flown to Washington on January 7.

For two days, he will lie in state in the rotunda of the US Capitol, where the public will be able to pay their respects.

His life will be celebrated at the Washington National Cathedral on January 9 in a service attended by several former presidents.

On top of the political praise Carter is expected to receive in the coming days will be personal praise from his extended family.

For Jason Carter, grandson of the former president, the personal connection he had with people will be especially missed.

“I think for a lot of people in the country he was a beacon of love and respect and I think that’s worth celebrating,” the former Georgia state senator told the BBC.