WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Funeral Service for former President Jimmy Carter included tributes from two politicians and friends of the former president who already passed away.
The sons of former President Gerald Ford, who died in 2006, and former Vice President Walter Mondale, who died in 2021, read eulogies their fathers had written for former President Carter before their deaths.
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Ford was seeking reelection as president in 1976 when Carter defeated him. After their times in the White House came to a close, the two men became dear friends.
Carter gave a eulogy at Ford’s funeral in 2006.
“According to a map, it’s a long way between Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Plains, Georgia. But distances have a way of vanishing when measured in values rather than miles. And it was because of our shared values that Jimmy and I respected each other as adversaries, even before we cherished one another as dear friends,” Steve Ford read.
Former President Ford wrote that the two former presidents became friends in 1981 when they were flying over the Atlantic Ocean on their way back from Egypt following the funeral of Anwar Sadat.
“We immediately decided to exercise one of the privileges of a former president, forgetting that either one of us had ever said any harsh words about the other one in the heat of battle. Then we got on to much more enjoyable subjects, discussing our families, our faith, and sharing our experiences in discovering that there is indeed life after the White House,” Steve Ford read of his father’s words. “We commiserate over the high cost of building presidential libraries, and the even more regrettable fact that most of that fundraising for these otherwise admirable institutions fell to us personally on the spot.”
Ford went on to compliment Carter’s commitment to honesty.
“For Jimmy Carter, honesty was not an aspirational goal. It was part of his very soul,” he wrote.
While most of his speech addressed the audience, former President Ford ended by addressing his friend directly.
“As for myself, Jimmy. I’m looking forward to our reunion. We have much to catch up on,” he wrote.
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Mondale was Carter’s running mate and served as Vice President of the United States during Carter’s time in the White House. He passed away in 2021, but his son, Ted Mondale, read a eulogy that the former vice president wrote for Carter.
Ted Mondale said his father initially wrote the eulogy in 2015 when former President Carter was diagnosed with cancer, but spent the years until his death making edits.
The former vice president wrote about the beginnings of his relationship with former President Carter, calling him “amazing.”
“I was surprised when then-candidate Carter asked me to join him as his running mate in 1976. He amazed me then, as he has every year since. He, of course, was brilliant. He also had a great sense of humor,” Ted Mondale read his father’s words.
Mondale, too, took a moment to address the former president.
“Mr. President, I will always be proud and grateful to have had the chance to work with you towards noble ends. It was then, and will always be, the most rewarding experience of my public career,” Mondale wrote.
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