Jimmy Carter, the 39th U.S. President, will be honored Thursday with the pageantry of a state funeral in the nation’s capital, followed by a second service and burial in his tiny Georgia hometown that

Carter, at 100 the nation’s longest living president, died Dec. 29 at his home in Plains. The scene this week in Washington, at the National Cathedral Thursday and as he was lying in state for three days at the Capitol, was unlike anything the country had seen in years.

As the 39th president is eulogized at Washington National Cathedral, Biden tells mourners his long-ago predecessor “taught me ... the strength of character.”

After the funeral, Carter will return to Georgia to be buried in his hometown of Plains, next to his beloved wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter. After Carter's family disembarked the plane, his casket was carried from the plane and transferred to the hearse.

On Jan. 9, after a long journey through Georgia and up to Washington, D.C., former president Jimmy Carter finally returns to Plains, Ga. for a hometown funeral.