Plains, Ga., joins a collection of other small towns known for their part in presidential history. That can provide a steady source of tourism.

At his modest ranch home, the 39th president was surrounded by a close knit circle of support of friends and family.

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

Days of tribute for the 39th president began on Saturday with stops at his childhood farm, the Georgia State Capitol and the Carter Center.

The gestures of remembrance have all been selected to reflect the 39th president’s rural roots and political career in Georgia and Washington, and his legacy of global advocacy.

Plains, Ga., had been bracing for the inevitable through the former president’s ailments and nearly two years of hospice care. Still, his death, at 100, “doesn’t seem real.”

He was a model ex-president and achieved a great deal in office.

We in the media and chattering class jeered at a man who probably improved more lives over a longer period than any other recent president.

Mr. Carter’s 1979 confrontation with a swimming rabbit was a “throwaway story” that became emblematic of his problems at home and abroad.

Rising from Georgia farmland to the White House, he oversaw the historic Camp David peace accords, but his one-term presidency was waylaid by troubles at home and abroad.