(NewsNation) — The body of former President Jimmy Carter arrived in Washington on Tuesday, where it will lie in state ahead of Thursday’s funeral at Washington National Cathedral.
Carter, who died at the age of 100 last week, had been lying in repose at the Carter Center in Atlanta before the 39th president’s remains were taken to Dobbins Air Force Base on Tuesday. Inclement weather on the East Coast delayed transporting Carter’s body to Washington by about 90 minutes Tuesday.
A small ceremony with Carter’s family took place at the Georgia Air Force Base before Carter’s remains were to be flown to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where another ceremony was scheduled to be held.
Carter was first taken to the U.S. Naval Museum before the former president’s remains were transported to the U.S. Capitol. Carter served in the Navy before he became a Georgia state senator and the state’s governor.
Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a eulogy at a ceremony for lawmakers Tuesday afternoon before public viewing at the Capitol Rotunda begins. In the ceremony, U.S. Senator Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, referred to Carter first and foremost as a “faithful servant to his creator and his fellow man.”
Carter said after leaving the White House in 1981, Carter focused on making the lives of his fellow man better, including his work with Haibitat for Humanity.
“Jimmy Carter knew that his status a former president could bring attention to good causes,” Thune said.
But Thune said that rather than just lending his name to the effort to help others, Carter worked to “get down in the weeds and the dirt.”
“He did that literally on numerous Habitat builds,” Thune said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, remembered Carter as “an extraordinary man” who modeled the virtues of service and citizenship “as well as any other American.”
The Vice President honored Carter, whom Harris described as “a man whose works with echo for generations to come.”
Harris said she remembers being a middle schooler when Carter was president and how her mother admired Carter’s character, integrity, work ethic and determination.
“Jimmy Carter established a new model for what it means to be a former president and leaves an extraordinary post-presidential legacy,” Harris said.
President Joe Biden will deliver a eulogy at the national funeral ceremony Thursday, which will coincide with a national day of mourning. The most recent national day of mourning was held in 2018 following the death of President George H.W. Bush.
Carter will then be returned to his hometown of Plains, Georgia, where he will be buried next to his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter, who died at the age of 96 in 2023.