Former President ’s official state funeral will be held Jan. 9, a day that has been declared a national day of mourning by President .
On Monday, Biden ordered federal offices closed on Jan. 9 “as a mark of respect” for Carter. The Supreme Court followed suit in the afternoon, announcing it would also be closed that day in recognition of the day of mourning.
Services honoring Carter will begin Jan. 4 and include a brief pause at the family farm in Plains, Georgia, where he grew up, and a stop at the Georgia State Capitol for a moment of silence.
Carter will repose in state at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta until Jan. 7 for mourners to pay their respects, before departing for Washington, D.C., where his remains will be carried to the U.S. Navy Memorial and then to the U.S. Capitol in a funeral procession.
Upon arrival at the Capitol on Dec. 7, members of Congress will pay their respects during an afternoon service. He will lie in state there until Jan. 9. The state funeral will be held at the National Cathedral at 10 a.m. that day. President Biden is expected to deliver a eulogy for the late president.
Carter will make his final journey home to Georgia via Special Air Mission 39 for a private funeral service at Maranatha Baptist Church on Jan. 9, followed by a private interment at the Carter family home. The public is invited to line the route to his final resting place. The U.S. Navy will honor Carter’s service in the military and as commander in chief in a formation.
Carter, the 39th U.S. president and the first to reach age 100, died Sunday. He had been in hospice care since February 2023 at his home in Plains, where he lived with his , Rosalynn Carter. The Nov. 19, 2023, at age 96.
Maranatha Baptist Church, where the former president was a member and taught Sunday school for many years, a prayer vigil Monday evening.
In a letter Monday, congressional leaders from both parties notified Carter’s son James Carter III and the Carter Center of their intent for the late president to lie in state at the Capitol.
“In recognition of President Carter’s long and distinguished service to the nation, it is our intention to ask the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate to permit his remains lie in state in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement.
“With your approval, we will move forward with these arrangements so that the American people have the opportunity to pay their respects to President Carter before he is laid to rest,” they added.
Biden said in remarks last year that Carter had asked him to deliver the eulogy at his funeral before catching himself and adding, “Excuse me, I shouldn’t say that.”
Carter and Biden fostered a close relationship over many decades, with Carter, a former governor of Georgia, telling how Biden supported him when he ran for president. In recorded remarks during the 2020 Democratic National Convention, Carter announced his support for then-candidate Biden, saying, “When I ran for president in 1976, Joe Biden was my first and most effective supporter in the Senate.” He added, “For decades, he has been my loyal and dedicated friend.”
For Carter’s 100th birthday in October, Biden recognized him with shared with CBS News, saying: “Mr. President, you’ve always been a moral force for our nation and the world. I recognized that as a young senator. That’s why I supported you so early. You’re a voice of courage, conviction, compassion, and most of all, a beloved friend of Jill and me and our family.”
The president and first lady Jill Biden visited Carter in April 2021, soon after Biden took office, spending almost an hour with the 39th president and his wife.
The two presidents last saw each other at Rosalynn Carter’s funeral in November 2023, where Biden said he had the opportunity to speak briefly with Carter and tell him how much he loved him.
In a statement on Truth Social on Sunday, President-elect Donald Trump also paid tribute to Carter, writing that “[t]he challenges Jimmy faced as President came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans.”
Trump added, “For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude.”
Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his global human rights work, including “his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts.” Through his work with the Carter Center, which he established in 1982 with his wife, Carter spent decades working in developing nations on efforts to restore human rights and build democratic institutions.
