As the U.S. Army Field Band from Fort Jackson, South Carolina played “Hail to the Chief” as pallbearers from all the branches of the military carried the casket with Carter’s remains from the Carter Center to the awaiting presidential hearse outside.

Nearly 44 years after Jimmy Carter left the nation's capital in humbling defeat, the 39th president returned to Washington for three days of state funeral rites starting Tuesday. Carter’s remains, which had been lying in repose at the Carter Presidential Center since Saturday,

While his home was always in the small Georgia town, Atlanta gave him the opportunities to cement a political and humanitarian legacy.