The hearse carrying the late former President Jimmy Carter stopped briefly in front of the state Capitol on the journey to the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta. Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder
Former President Jimmy Carter may have only served one term as governor, but he left his mark in many ways before leaving for Washington, even literally.
With a pencil, Carter signed the desk in the governor’s ceremonial office, starting a tradition that has been continued by his successors.
Four of those governors who would go on to write their own signature on the desk – three of them Republicans – were among those who bundled up Saturday and stood outside the state Capitol as Carter’s motorcade made a brief and solemn ceremonial stop on its way to the Carter Presidential Center a few miles away.
“I think most of us felt like he had really fought for so long that there was a certain peace about that at that final moment in that regard,” Sonny Perdue, a former governor who is now chancellor of the University System of Georgia, told reporters Saturday.
“But I think we looked at the pictures of him at his wife’s funeral, and that wasn’t the President Carter that I knew and the humanitarian that lived after that,” Perdue said.
Carter, who was a Democrat, died last Sunday at the age of 100 after being in hospice care for nearly two years. Former first lady Rosalynn Carter died late last year.
The ceremonial stop at the state Capitol was part of the first of a six-day funeral procession that started Saturday in Americus and will culminate Thursday with services in Washington and finally back in Plains. Carter will lie in repose at the Carter Presidential Center until 6 a.m. Tuesday.
Wendy Shaw, who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, and her family were among the many out-of-towners who made their way to Atlanta this weekend for the former president’s funeral services.
The family visited the state Capitol on Saturday morning and then proceeded to the Carter Presidential Center at night for Carter’s public visitation. The 56-year-old banker wanted to pay respect to her childhood hero.
“He was someone who I admired because of what he stood for politically and for being someone who championed causes that benefited people who were the most in need,” Shaw said.
For the most part, Saturday was a reflection of Carter’s humble beginnings in rural Georgia and his time under the Gold Dome in Atlanta, where he served as a state senator and governor before winning a long-shot bid for president in 1976.
Carter’s fingerprints can still be seen all over state government, including through the state’s education system – he laid the groundwork for the state’s technical and vocational education system as well as Georgia’s universal kindergarten and pre-K programs – and drastically restructured state government through a consolidation of agencies and boards.
“You might think about that as being like smaller government, but that wasn’t his goal,” said state Sen. Sally Harrell, an Atlanta Democrat who served alongside Carter-era lawmakers when she was in the state House.
“His goal was to have efficient government that served the people better. So that was always his goal is to have a government that is stronger for the people. That government still exists today,” she said.
Harrell was among the dozens of state lawmakers who greeted Carter’s motorcade Saturday as it stopped in front of the state Capitol amid a bipartisan outpouring of tributes and reflections on Carter’s legacy.
“I think when people think about President Carter, they think about him being a compassionate, moral person, and I think that’s what people are craving now, is to have another leader like him,” Harrell said.
Perdue argued the universal admiration seen in the last week says as much about the nation as it does Carter.
“I hope that says something about us as far as a country that’s willing to recognize a great person, a great leader in that regard, and pay due respect to one irrespective of what partisan activity or area they were in that regard, I feel that way,” Perdue said. “Obviously, I have great respect for what he did – not what party he belonged to, but what he created and did for mankind afterwards.”
Georgia Supreme Court Justice Charlie Bethel, a former GOP state senator who previously served alongside Carter’s grandson Jason Carter in the state Senate, said he felt sadness but also pride at the death of a man he tells his children is worthy of emulation.
“In our house, we don’t do a lot of ‘heroing,’ because human beings are flawed, but it’s nice to be able to point to somebody and say, if you want to live like another person, Jimmy Carter is one person it’s worth pursuing that as a goal,” Bethel said Saturday.
Georgia’s highest-ranking elected officials, who are all Republicans, were also there to honor Carter and to greet Jason Carter and Carter’s oldest son, Chip Carter.
“There was a lot of love on the side of the road,” Chip Carter said during a private service at the Carter Presidential Center. “Every overpass had people on it. It was amazing and gave you goosebumps just to sit in the van and see the reaction of those people of Georgia.”
The public visitation started Saturday evening after the private service, which was attended by staff of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum and the Carter Center – the people Jason Carter called the “real keepers of my grandparents’ legacy.”
“We’ll have many chances this week to pay tribute to my grandfather, but it was important for all of us that we stop here,” Jason Carter said during Saturday’s service. “These buildings, as you all know, are filled with his life, not just because this is a museum to his life and not just because there’s a collection here of his beloved paintings, but his spirit fills this place. And the real reason that this spirit fills this place is because of the people who are standing here.”
Georgia Recorder senior reporter Stanley Dunlap contributed to this report.
