Americus, Georgia | In a few days, Jimmy Carter will be celebrated in a towering cathedral in Washington by fellow American presidents, noted humanitarians and other world leaders.

But before all of that, a hearse carrying the remains of Mr Carter, the nation’s 39th president, paused on Saturday (Sunday AEDT) outside a farmhouse in Georgia. There, he raised chickens, helped his father tend to peanut crops and began a seemingly improbable, century-long journey that vaulted him from Plains, Georgia, to the heights of political influence and along a globe-trotting mission to eradicate disease and protect democracy.