39 bell tolls begin final national sendoff for Carter

Mourners honor Jimmy Carter, 39th US president, in a six-day farewell after his death at age 100.

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WHITE PLAINS:

Mourners began paying their respects to Jimmy Carter on Saturday, as a carefully choreographed six-day farewell for America's longest-lived president got underway.

US flags have been flying at half-staff around the country since Carter died on December 29 at age 100 in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.

The procession got underway when US Secret Service agents from his current and former protective details carried his flag-draped casket to a hearse for a tour through Plains.

Crowds gathered along the roadside to say their goodbyes, with many waving small American flags, snapping photographs or saluting as the motorcade rolled slowly past.

The black hearse bearing his remains paused at Carter's boyhood family peanut farm, where a bell was rung 39 times in honor of America's 39th president. Staff of the National Park Service, which operates the farm, stood in somber, silent tribute.

"He was a man that didn't walk around proud, he was an everyday normal person," William Brown, 71, told AFP while waiting for the motorcade in Plains. "We're going to miss him."