PLAINS, Ga. — Plains, Georgia is where Jimmy Carter’s story began, and it is where he will be buried.

But his story is by no means over. His legacy lives on, and people in Plains will make sure it does. 

Kim Fuller has piles of Jimmy Carter memorabilia.

She is the executive director of the Friends of Jimmy Carter organization in Plains. And she’s family. 

Her father was Billy, brother of Jimmy Carter, making her the niece of the former president. 

“I remember when he sat all of us down to tell us he was going to run for president,” she recalled. “Uncle Jimmy was the first president I voted for.”

With posters, paintings and photos, her walls do talk, telling the story of Jimmy Carter: president, peacemaker and proud Plains resident.

His death has sent a ripple of mourning through the small rural town with a population of 500. 

The sense of the people who visited Plains this week for Carter’s funeral procession was really not so much sorrow, but reverence.

Charley McClaren of Largo, Florida, visited to Plains this week, and woke up early Saturday to have a good vantage point of the motorcade in the funeral procession. 

“Today I’m grateful. I have so much gratitude that someone like President Carter grew up here and had a dream and lived it out,” she said.

However, residents of Plains and nearby towns, who actually knew Jimmy Carter, expressed sadness. 

“I’m somewhat sad because you’re talking about a key figure not only for Georgia but for the United States,” Jeremiah Thomas of Plains noted. 

“It’s hard. We’re OK, but there have been moments,” Fuller said. “There have been moments. Because even though he hasn’t been around physically in a while because he has just not been able to, we always knew he was there,” she added, pointing down the road. “I still have voicemails on my phone which I can’t listen to now.”

An estimated 200 to 300 people lined the streets of downtown Plains in the 40-degree weather. They came from out-of-state and from just down the road.

As the hearse passed by them, people from different political parties waved flags to honor the 39th president.

Sarah Wollenwamper drove her teenage son, London, from Illinois to Plains this week because he admires Jimmy Carter so much.

“I would’ve liked to meet him in person,” said London Wollenwamper. “Being here, it would allow me to see his funeral procession, and witness it, and say, ‘I was there.'”

His mother said, “Jimmy Carter is the best role model I could have for a son. He puts his values above everything else.”

Meanwhile, Fuller will continue to collect keepsakes about a man who grew up on a farm in Plains, left to change the world and returned home having left a lasting mark on its people.

“He cared about this town. They [Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter] came here because Plains is a major part of their story, and I’m hoping we can keep telling that story,” Fuller said.