‘Holy ground.’ Why travelers, locals braved frigid cold to be in Plains for Carter motorcade
It was sunrise on a frigid Saturday morning in Plains, and two couples in their 60s and 70s from Florida were the first folks to stake a claim at the intersection of Church and Bond streets.
They drove 6 1/2 hours to witness history and express their gratitude in the hometown of the nation’s 39th president.
The six days of events for Jimmy Carter’s state funeral wasn’t scheduled to begin for another three hours, but Darcy and Jeffrey Buck of Dunedin and Charley McClaren and Richard Smith of Largo, Florida, made sure they got a good spot to view the motorcade.
As they tried to keep warm, they explained to the Ledger-Enquirer what compelled them to be here.
“To honor the kindness, the integrity, what he stood for,” said Darcy Buck, whose first vote for president went to Carter. “Personally, there’s not enough of that right now, especially in politics. A man that wouldn’t do the things that are being done in politics now, call people names. He always rose above that.”
McClaren and Smith were in Philadelphia visiting their grandchildren when Carter died Dec. 29. So they decided to take a detour to Plains on their way home.
“He was the kind of son of the South that I wanted to be,” Smith said. “His stance on racial interaction was awesome, and it went way went way back in his life — way before it was convenient, for sure — and he just was an idol for me. He was my first vote (for president), too, and my second, despite how it turned out.”
McClaren fondly recalled the Sunday school lessons she attended when Carter would teach public classes at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains.
“I’m a Methodist minister, and so his walk of faith is something that I always admired,” she said. “He was so humble and sincere. … I’d get there at 3 o’clock in the morning to wait in the parking lot to hear him speak. … He actually believed it. He taught it, and he walked it. He knew his Bible, and he lived by those principles, which most people don’t do, especially if they’re caught up in power. He never got caught up in power.”
Smith got choked up as he said, “When he comes by for the last time, this will be holy ground, and I want to be here.
Carter family connection
This was personal a moment for Kathy Cross and a half dozen of her relatives who gathered along Church Street to watch the motorcade.
Cross’ father, Edmond Hollis, was one of Carter’s boyhood playmates as they grew up 3 miles from Plains in Archery, an unincorporated rural community in Webster County.
She recalled her father saying, “The Carter family were good people. They didn’t think about Black and white. They were just all one family together.”
Members of the Hollis family worked for the Carters, Cross said, and her aunt was a babysitter for them.
“They treated them no different, like the human beings they are,” Cross said of the Carters. “It was just great.”
Cross, a medical aide residing in Plains, experience the Carter humanity up close. She got to know Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter through conversations they had when the Carters rode their bikes through the neighborhood.
“They were just beautiful, nice,” she said. “He was a person who believed in God and believed in people.”
Proud of living in a president’s hometown, Cross thought about what Carter’s death will mean to Plains in the coming years.
“I just hope we still have people coming here to show respect for Jimmy and Rosalynn,” she said. “I think it always should be like.”
Family outing
Watching the motorcade was a family outing for Jonathan Gibson of Plains. He and his wife, Kelly, set up chairs and blankets for their three children along Church Street three hours before Carter’s casket was scheduled to go past them.
They are friends of Kim Fuller, Carter’s niece and the executive director for the Friends of Jimmy Carter, which helps maintain the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park. So, in addition to honoring a former president, they attended to comfort their friend in the wake of losing her uncle.
The moment was worth the cold wait because it will make warm memories for them, said Gibson, 35, who works as an insurance agent in Albany.
“(The children) won’t fully appreciate it until later, but to me, it’s important because it’s community, and it’s also witnessing history,” he said.
Gibson was glad to see several hundred people line the motorcade route through Plains despite the uncomfortable temperature.
“To see how much respect is given to him,” he said after the motorcade passed by, “it’s a beautiful tribute.”
This story was originally published January 4, 2025 at 9:55 AM.
