WASHINGTON — Former President Jimmy Carter’s memorial journey will end at his house in the tiny town of Plains, Georgia, where he grew up on a peanut farm. That is where his wife, Rosalynn, was laid to rest last year in a burial plot that they chose years ago.

But before Carter reaches his humble final destination, there will be an interstate choreography of grief, ceremony and logistics characteristic of state funerals. Ever since the nation’s founding, America has bid farewell to former presidents with an intricate series of events weaving together long-standing traditions and personal touches.

Funerals often are planned by the presidents themselves, who usually have years after leaving the White House to ponder how they want to be memorialized.

“They are very much involved in the planning process, and the decisions that they make tell us a lot about who they are, how they see the presidency, and how they want to be remembered by the American people,” said Matthew Costello, senior historian for the White House Historical Association, who co-wrote a book called “Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture.”

Carter had more time to plan than most. He lived for 43 years after his presidency ended, the longest post-presidency in U.S. history, before dying Sunday at 100.

Many details of his funeral remain under wraps, at the discretion of the family and military units that are responsible for carrying out the plans. Most presidents lie in state in the U.S. Capitol, and there is usually a service at Washington National Cathedral.

President Joe Biden let slip last year that Carter had asked him to give a eulogy. (“Excuse me, I shouldn’t say that,” Biden admitted.)

Biden said Sunday that his team is working with Carter’s family and others “to see to it that he is remembered appropriately, here in the United States and around the world.” Carter’s son Chip is his main point of contact, though Biden said he has spoken with all the Carter children.

He described a process underway “that will take a little time” but will result in a “major service in Washington, D.C.” for Carter, which Biden scheduled for Jan. 9.

Sometimes former presidents help with even the smallest details.

Jeffrey Engel, director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, recalled meeting with former President George H.W. Bush shortly after Bush revised the seating chart for his funeral.

“And I said, ‘Is that weird? You know, it’s your own death,’ ” Engel recalled. “And he said, ‘You know, you do it every three months. You kind of get used to it.’ ”

President Dwight Eisenhower, who commanded Allied troops during World War II before becoming a politician, wanted to be buried in an $80 government-issued casket. Apart from a glass seal that was added to the design, it was indistinguishable from the casket of any other solider.

Details of the processions also can reflect aspects of a president’s life. Former President Ronald Reagan’s casket was carried up the west steps of the U.S. Capitol, which face his home state of California. When former President Gerald Ford died, his casket was brought through the House side of the building, a nod to his years as a lawmaker.

The job of carrying out presidential funerals falls to the Joint Task Force-National Capital Region, which includes 4,000 military and civilian personnel. The unit said in a statement that it “is privileged to provide this support on behalf of the nation.”

Presidential funerals can leave lasting marks on the American consciousness.

One of the most memorable descriptions of former President George Washington — “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen” — came from a eulogy that was widely reprinted when the country’s first leader died.

After President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Kennedy’s casket was transported down Pennsylvania Avenue on the same caisson that carried President Abraham Lincoln after he was assassinated a century earlier — and a riderless horse was included in the procession.

Kennedy’s was the first presidential funeral to be widely televised.

“Technology has made mourning in a way more accessible, more democratic,” Costello said.

Engel said that “since we have no national figure other than the president, we’ve essentially taken all the traditional weight and civic emotion that is put on to the death or the birth or a wedding for a sovereign or a king and placed it on the heads of the presidents. And there aren’t that many of them, to be honest. So whenever one of them passes, it’s unusual and a big deal.”