Jimmy Carter to Lie in State in Capitol Starting Tuesday

The nation’s leaders on Tuesday kicked off three days of tributes to Jimmy Carter, staging an elaborate pageant of Washington fanfare for a politician who disavowed the trappings of the imperial presidency and never gave up his humble Georgia roots.

Mr. Carter, who died last week at age 100, was flown to Washington and taken to the U.S. Navy Memorial downtown, then delivered to the Capitol by a horse-drawn caisson. He will lie in state in the Rotunda all day Wednesday before a formal state funeral at Washington National Cathedral on Thursday.

“James Earl Carter Jr. loved our country,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in a eulogy during a solemn Capitol service attended by members of Congress, the cabinet, Supreme Court and diplomatic corps. “He lived his faith, he served the people and he left the world better than he found it. And in the end, Jimmy Carter’s work and those works speak for him louder than any tribute we can offer.”

The 39th president’s flag-draped coffin was carried into the Rotunda by military bearers and placed on the same catafalque that once bore the bodies of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. All four of Mr. Carter’s children — Jack, Chip, Jeff and Amy — stood nearby, as did various grandchildren and other relatives, their faces a mix of sorrow and appreciation.

During the course of the long day’s journey from Atlanta to Washington, military bands played “Hail to the Chief” no fewer than five times for a president who initially barred the song from being played at all when he was sworn in as president in January 1977. Eager to present himself as a man of the people, Mr. Carter thought playing of the song smacked of haughtiness, though he later relented when aides persuaded him of the virtues of preserving the majesty of the office.