WASHINGTON: The body of late US president Jimmy Carter was flown to Washington on Tuesday where it will lie in state at the US Capitol before a national funeral ceremony later this week.
Carter, who died December 29 at the age of 100, served a single term from 1977-1981, and was widely praised for his post-presidential humanitarian efforts, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
The Georgia native's body was transported Tuesday with honors from Atlanta, where thousands had visited to pay respects, to the presidential US Air Force plane and flown to Joint Base Andrews just outside the US capital.
In an ode Carter's military service on submarines, his body was to be driven to the US Navy memorial in Washington and transferred from a hearse to a horse-drawn caisson for a funeral procession to the US Capitol.
Pennsylvania Avenue, the road leading to the Capitol, has been cleared of snow from a recent winter storm, which has prompted federal office and school closures in the area.
Military pallbearers will carry his flag-draped casket to the Capitol rotunda where his body will lie in state, surrounded by a guard of honor of service members, until 7:00 am Thursday.
Carter will be the 13th former US president to lie in state in the Capitol. Abraham Lincoln, assassinated in 1865, was the first.
A national funeral service is to be held Thursday at the National Cathedral, an Episcopal church in Washington that also hosted state funerals for former presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush.
Current President Joe Biden is to deliver the eulogy for his fellow Democrat.
All four living former presidents -- Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump -- are expected to attend.
Biden has declared Thursday a national day of mourning, with federal government offices to be closed for the day.
He has also ordered flags to half-staff for 30 days as is customary, which means that will be the case during Trump's January 20 inauguration, something the Republican has criticized.
The first president to reach triple digits, Carter had been in hospice care since February 2023 in his home town of Plains, Georgia, where he died and will be buried next to his late wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter.
