What happened
Former President Jimmy Carter was buried alongside his wife, Rosalynn, in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, on Thursday after being eulogized at a grand state funeral in Washington National Cathedral and then back home at a smaller, private funeral at Maranatha Baptist Church, where he taught Sunday school for many years. All five living presidents and other world leaders attended the state funeral, as did friends and family.
Who said what
Carter, who died at age 100, often “eschewed the pomp of high office as haughty and unbecoming,” The Washington Post said. But his state funeral, per tradition, was “replete with the exalted trappings of a presidential send-off.” The image of the five living presidents, all wearing black suits and blue ties, offered a “rare image of presidential unity” that spoke of “preservation and strength” in a time of upheaval and polarization, The New York Times said.
Posthumous eulogies written by former President Gerald Ford and Carter’s vice president Walter Mondale were read by their sons. President Joe Biden repeatedly praised Carter’s character. “Today we may think he was from a bygone era,” he said. “But in reality, he saw well into the future.”
What next?
Stuart Eizenstat, a longtime friend and adviser to Carter, said in his eulogy it was “time to redeem his presidency and also lay to rest the myth that his greatest achievements came only as a former president.” Carter, he said, “may not be a candidate for Mount Rushmore, but he belongs in the foothills.”