Jimmy Carter has not been seen publicly since his wife died more than a week ago, but he is expected to attend Tuesday’s memorial service at Emory University.
The former president spent Monday night at the Carters’ apartment in the Carter Center in Atlanta, resting for Tuesday’s service for Rosalynn Carter, according to Paige Alexander, the center’s CEO.
Alexander said that Carter family members streamed in and out of the apartment and gathered with him for a family dinner.
The Carter Center sits next to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, where Rosalynn Carter lay in repose Monday night for a public visitation.
The former president, 99, is in poor health. He entered home hospice care in Plains in February. Rosalynn Carter, his wife of 77 years, died Nov. 19 at the age of 96.
Jimmy Carter was last seen in public in September, when the former first couple made a brief appearance at Plains’ annual peanut festival.
The former president was not in the family motorcade that departed Plains on Monday morning and made stops in Americus before arriving in Atlanta on Monday afternoon. But a Carter Center spokesperson had told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday that the former president was expected to travel to Atlanta.
The motorcade was scheduled to depart late Tuesday morning from the Carter Presidential Center on its way to Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church on Emory University’s campus, where a memorial service will be held from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
President Joe Biden and his wife Jill are expected to attend the service, along with many other dignitaries, including former President Bill Clinton; former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; former first ladies Melania Trump, Michelle Obama and Laura Bush; Vice President Kamala Harris; Governor Brian Kemp and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens.
The Carter family motorcade will return to Plains, the Carters’ rural hometown in South Georgia, later Tuesday.
A funeral service will be held in Plains at Maranatha Baptist Church on Wednesday, before the former first lady is buried in a private ceremony on the Carters’ property.
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