Former US President, 99 year old Jimmy Carter. will be joined by all living US first ladies and multiple presidents at a memorial for his wife Rosalynn Carter.
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The funeral at Glenn Memorial Church in Atlanta falls on the second of a three-day schedule of public events celebrating the former first lady and global humanitarian who died on November 19 at home in Plains, Georgia, at the age of 96.
Tributes began Monday in the Carters' native Sumter County and continued in Atlanta as she lay in repose at The Jimmy Carter Presidential Centre.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, longtime friends of the Carters, lead the list of dignitaries joining the widowed former president in Atlanta. Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, along with former first ladies Melania Trump, Michelle Obama and Laura Bush, will pay their respects, as will Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and his wife Marty Kemp. Former Presidents Donald Trump, Barack Obama and George W Bush were invited but will not attend.
Jimmy Carter's participation in the events has been a day-by-day question; he is 10 months into home hospice care. The Carter Centre confirmed his plans to attend the Tuesday service. It will be his first public appearance since September, when he and Rosalynn Carter rode together in the Plains Peanut Festival parade, visible only through open windows in a Secret Service vehicle.
The Carters married in 1946, their 77-plus years together making them the longest-married presidential couple in US history.
"My grandmother, in addition to being a partner to my grandfather, was a force on her own," said Jason Carter, who will be among the speakers Tuesday.
Rosalynn Carter has been praised for a half-century of advocacy for better mental health care in America and reducing stigma attached to mental illness. She brought attention to the tens of millions of people who work as unpaid caregivers in US households. And she's gained new acclaim for how integral she was to her husband's political rise and in his terms as Georgia's governor and the 39th president.
Biden, who plans to eulogise Jimmy Carter at his state funeral when the time comes, is indisputably the friendliest ally Carter has had in the Oval Office since he left Washington in 1981. But Carter, who lost reelection in a landslide to Ronald Reagan, got a cool reception from his earlier Democratic successors, Clinton and Barack Obama, as both men tried to steer clear of the perceived political failure. Rosalynn Carter, according to some people close to her, was not happy with that treatment.
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter confirmed they voted in the 2016 Georgia Democratic presidential primary for Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton. Jimmy Carter also rankled some of his successors with criticism of their foreign and military policy, especially George W Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The Carters had perhaps the wildest relationship with Trump. Jimmy Carter aligned with Trump on his willingness to talk to isolationist and authoritarian North Korea. But he also suggested Trump's election in 2016 was illegitimate.
Trump answered by calling Carter "the worst" of all US presidents. He now tells audiences that Carter is happy Biden has taken that distinction. Trump offered the quip as recently as November 18, the day after Jason Carter announced that his grandmother had entered end-of-life care at home.
Trump's absence Tuesday will ensure no awkward encounters with the Carter family or with Biden as the two men appear to be on course for a rematch of the 2020 general election.
Jimmy Carter is the longest-lived president; Rosalynn Carter was the second-longest lived first lady, trailing only Bess Truman, who died at 97.
Rosalynn Carter's final services will take place on Wednesday in Plains, with an invitation-only service at Maranatha Baptist Church.
Australian Associated Press
