ATLANTA — Former President Jimmy Carter’s contributions to his country will be remembered next week at a national funeral in Washington, D.C.

But on Saturday, it was Georgians’ turn to remember and honor their native son, as mourners lined streets and highways from Americus to Atlanta to say goodbye to the 39th president, who died Dec. 29 at age 100.

Saturday’s start to a six-day celebration of the life of Jimmy Carter was dedicated specifically to the leaders and staff of the Carter Center who will carry on the work he began there after his presidency in 1982.

Grandson Jason Carter, a former state senator and gubernatorial candidate now serving as the Carter Center’s board chair, thanked those staffers during a service Saturday afternoon at the center in Atlanta.

“Many of you have devoted decades to his legacy,” Jason Carter said. “Your expertise, your track record will continue to drive a world where people can participate in free, fair, and credible elections, a world where the rule of law and human rights are respected and enjoyed, not just by some people but by everyone, a world where kids don’t go blind from preventable diseases.”

Earlier Saturday, the late president’s flag-draped casket was transported from Americus, the seat of his home county of Sumter, past his hometown of Plains and the farm in nearby Archery where he spent his boyhood along U.S. 280 and Interstate 75 north to Atlanta. The motorcade paused outside the Archery home, where a National Park Service ranger saluted Carter by ringing the historic farm bell 39 times in honor of the nation’s 39th president.

The motorcade also stopped outside the Georgia Capitol in downtown Atlanta, where Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, state House Speaker Jon Burns, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, and other city and state dignitaries observed a moment of silence.

At the Carter Center, a military honor guard bore Carter’s casket inside while a military band played “Hail to the Chief” and “America the Beautiful” and the Morehouse College Glee Club sang “The Lord’s Prayer.”

Chip Carter, the former president’s eldest son, was among the family members who traveled behind the hearse bearing Carter from Americus to Atlanta.

“There was a lot of love on the side of the road,” he said. “Every overpass had people on it. … It gave you goosebumps just to sit in the van and see the reactions of the people of Georgia.”

Chip Carter, choking back tears, paid tribute not just to his father but to his mother, Rosalynn Carter, who died in November 2023 at the age of 96. The two were married for 77 years.

“He was an amazing man, and he was held up, propped up, and soothed by an amazing woman,” Chip Carter said. “And the two of them together changed the world.”

Carter’s remains will lie in repose at the Carter Center until Tuesday morning, when he will be flown to Washington, D.C., to lie in state inside the U.S. Capitol Rotunda until Thursday’s funeral at the National Cathedral. A private funeral service and burial will take place in Plains later that day.