Atlanta mourners pass through Jimmy Carter’s life to visit him in repose

The murmurs died down as mourners entered the museum, greeted by Jimmy Carter’s words on the wall.

“My faith demands — this is not optional — that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have to try to make a difference,” one quote read.

The visitors had gathered Sunday to pay their respects to the former president, who died Dec. 29 and is lying in repose at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta.

Before they could stop before Carter’s casket, though, they slowly walked through his life.

They solemnly moved along the corridors of the museum, which told the story of Carter’s humble beginnings in rural Plains, his service in the U.S. Navy as a nuclear engineer, his winning campaign for Georgia governor and his rise to the White House.

Carter lost his reelection bid in 1980 amid inflation and the Iran hostage crisis, among other problems. But photos and readings in the exhibit reminded mourners of Carter’s accomplishments as president, from energy policy, foreign diplomacy and peace efforts with Israel and Egypt.

And interwoven throughout the entire journey was his love story with former first lady Rosalynn Carter, his wife of 77 years, who died in November 2023.

As visitors moved through the final stage of the former president’s life, images of him building homes with Habitat for Humanity and his work in Africa nearly eradicating Guinea worm disease flashed by in a dark corridor.

Finally, the visitors entered the room holding Carter’s casket, cloaked in an American flag, lights shining down overhead.

One by one, they stopped in front of the closed casket. Some made the sign of the cross and hung their heads, while tears streamed down the faces of others. After a few seconds, they moved on to make way for the next mourner.

“Passing through the accomplishments of his life and ending with the casket of this great man in front of you, there’s a finality to it,” Ray Strikas, 71, said.

Emotional, his wife, Paula Strikas, 68, called the experience “humbling” after they emerged from the roughly half-hour procession on Sunday morning.

“If we all did one selfless thing a day or even a week, imagine where we could be,” she said.

Carter’s nearly weeklong funeral procession began Saturday morning in southwest Georgia. The motorcade stopped at his boyhood farm in Plains and slowed down as it passed through several towns in Middle Georgia so that people could pay their roadside respects. It arrived in Atlanta on Saturday afternoon.

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On Tuesday morning, Carter’s remains will be flown to Washington, D.C. Carter will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol before his state funeral in the Washington National Cathedral on Thursday morning. The funeral procession returns Thursday to Carter’s hometown Plains, where he will be buried.

But first, mourners are being invited to pay their respects at the wooded campus in Atlanta’s Poncey-Highland neighborhood that is home to the nonprofit Carter Center and Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum. Public visitation began Saturday at 7 p.m. and will continue uninterrupted until Tuesday at 6 a.m., with the military maintaining a guard of honor throughout.

Several dozen visitors had lined up in front of the center by 4 p.m. Saturday, three hours before doors opened.

At the front of the line was 53-year-old Jackie Cunningham, wrapped in a black trench coat, with her two children also respectfully dressed in black. The Texas native had driven 12 hours to Atlanta to pay her respects to the former president.

“I have loved him my whole life,” she said, recalling when her father took her at age five to the polling place at their Southern Baptist church where he voted for Carter in 1976.

A half century later, Cunningham and others are paying homage to Carter’s long life of service, including perhaps the most impactful post-presidency in American history, which contributed to him being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

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Margie Afanador, a 73-year-old Snellville resident, was among those who visited Sunday. She remembered closely following Carter’s campaign for presidency in 1976, when she lived in Pennsylvania, and the day she cast her ballot for Carter.

“Walking through there was like reliving all those moments in history, because a lot of the politics, I lived through,” she said afterward. “He fought for humanity with grace and dignity.”

The Strikas, who live in Marietta, also shared their memories of Carter: Paula recalled looking down at the huge crowds gathered for Carter’s inauguration from the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, where she interned for Representative James C. Cleveland of New Hampshire at age 18.

Ray fondly recounted shaking Carter’s hand on a plane from D.C. to Atlanta in the early 2000s. “I heard, ‘Hello captain’ and I look up and President Carter was there greeting everyone on the plane,” Ray said.

Vehicle access around the Carter Presidential Center is restricted while Carter lies in repose. Visitors are encouraged to take public transportation or come on foot or by bicycle. The center is near Atlanta’s Beltline, a popular recreation path, and some visitors showed up Sunday in workout clothes.

Taking the free bus shuttle back to the King Memorial MARTA Station after the viewing, 72-year-old Linda Owens reflected on what she called the “current climate of hate,” including last week’s deadly terrorist attack in New Orleans.

The world needs more of the likes of Carter, she said.

“He preached peace and equality,” she said. “He served one term, but it was like he served many terms after. May he rest in peace.”