Americans wave goodbye to US president Jimmy Carter

Americans gather to mourn Jimmy Carter as an almost week-long state funeral for the 39th US president begins.

Saturday’s procession from Carter’s home in Plains, Georgia, to Atlanta marks the beginning of a six-day public farewell to the statesman who passed away last month at the age of 100.

Carter is scheduled to be flown to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, where he will kneel in the US Capitol building and lead a mass on Thursday that will include statements by former US presidents.

Hundreds of Georgians and people from around the world gathered in Atlanta this weekend to pay their respects to the Carter family.

Among those who attended Saturday was Heather Brooks, an Atlanta resident and “huge fan” of the Democrat.

“[I] Brooks told the BBC: “I always found him kind, a wonderful person who did a lot for the world, not just America.”

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

Paige Alexander, president of the Carter Centre, told the BBC that Carter should be remembered “for his sincerity and integrity.”

“I mean, at the end of the day, you have a politician who during a debate says, you know, ‘Honorable President.’ [Gerald] “Ford and I disagree on these issues. You’re not hearing that now,” Ms. Alexander said.

The grassy area outside the Carter Center was overflowing with flowers, handwritten tributes and bags of peanuts, a nod to Carter’s early years as a peanut farmer on the plains.

Those who know the former president well, like Jill Stuckey, a longtime friend of the Carter family, said she will miss his and his wife, Rosalynn,’s commitment to helping others.

This is something Ms Stuckey said the couple were committed to “until the day they died”.

She told the BBC: “I don’t know how we will get used to a world without President Carter.”

On Saturday, the procession passed the Methodist Church where the Carters were married in 1946, and the house where they lived and died.

The former president will be buried there alongside Rosalyn, who died in late 2023 at the age of 96.

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

The procession 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 6 before he flies to Washington, D.C., on January 7.

He will lie in state for two days in the Capitol Rotunda, where the public will be able to pay their respects.

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

On top of the political praise Carter is expected to receive in the coming days, there are the personal tributes from his extended family.

For Jason Carter, the former president’s grandson, it’s the personal connection he had with people that he will especially miss.

“I think for a lot of people in the country he was a beacon of love and respect, and I think that deserves to be celebrated,” Jason Carter, a former Georgia state senator, told the BBC.