Mourners travel from near and far to pay respects to Jimmy Carter

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Hundreds of people lined up Saturday evening to pay their respects to the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter.

They traveled from near and far across the United States.

“I came from Austin, Texas,” David Montoya said. “It took me between 13 to 15 hours to get here.”

“It was a 10-hour journey here,” Sara Wollenweber said. “We actually drove to Plains so 12 hours all together.”

People shared happy memories of how Jimmy Carter has impacted their lives.

“When I was a kid, I actually got to meet Jimmy Carter. I gave him a tour with my grandfather, who was director of the Atlanta Botanical Gardens at the time. They had just opened their new orchid exhibit, and I got pulled out of school and got to go down and give him a private tour,” Patrick Lanier said.

“We went to Plains about 5 years ago, my wife was pregnant at the time, and I was like okay we’re going through (baby) names, he’s going to be a boy, and we said let’s call him James. We love Jimmy Carter,” Casey Beavers said.

“In 1980, in my ninth year of life, I was the campaign manager for our class for Mr. Carter and I had the buttons and all that. I just loved him so much and he was a man of integrity and kindness,” Jackie Cunnigham said.

“During the 2016 election I feel like that’s when our politics in America started to kind of change for the worst. But then I found Jimmy Carter and started researching him and that kind of gave me hope for the future,” London Wollenweber said. “I’m hoping that moving forward they take Jimmy Carter’s legacy and follow through with it and our politicians look at his legacy and say let’s be more like Jimmy.”

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