WASHINGTON - Flags flew at half-staff across the United States on Monday as global tributes poured in for the life and legacy of Jimmy Carter -- the longest-lived US president, who died aged 100.
The Georgia native, whose unlikely political ascent carried him from picking peanuts on the family farm to the Oval Office, was remembered in glowing eulogies as an ardent defender of human rights and champion of the downtrodden.
He will be honored with public observances in his southern home state and in Washington in the coming days.
The first president to reach triple digits, Carter had been in hospice care in his home town of Plains since February 2023.
The Carter Center, his post-presidential humanitarian and pro-democracy organisation, announced Sunday he had died "peacefully" at home "surrounded by his family."
The White House flag was lowered to half-staff, while President Joe Biden has scheduled a state funeral for January 9 and declared it a National Day of Mourning.
In Georgia on Saturday, Carter will be conveyed by motorcade through Plains to the farm where he grew up and then on to the state capitol in Atlanta, the military said in a statement.
He will lie in repose at the Carter Center, the organization said, before being flown January 7 to Washington to lie in state at the US Capitol with a military guard.
Two days later, he will be buried in Plains after the traditional televised funeral at Washington National Cathedral, accorded to every US president.
He was the oldest ever former US president, outliving writers who contributed to his obituaries at The New York Times and Washington Post by seven years and 10 years respectively.
His longevity had seemed unlikely when the Southern Democrat revealed in 2015 that he had brain cancer.