Plains (Georgia, United States), Jan 4 (LaPresse/AP) – The long public farewell of Jimmy Carter, who passed away on 29 December at the age of 100, began in southern Georgia. The funeral procession with the flag-draped coffin of the former president started from the Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus. Former Secret Service agents who had protected Carter carried the coffin, walking alongside the hearse as it left the campus. The Carter family, including the former president's four children, many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, accompanied the patriarch in a procession that will carry his remains through his hometown of Plains and past the house where he spent his childhood, and then on to Atlanta, where a ceremony will be held at the Carter Presidential Center.