Steve Ford, son of former President Gerald Ford, read a eulogy to former President Jimmy Carter written by his father before his 2006 death.
Both presidents had agreed to eulogize each other, knowing that one would have to entrust the delivery to someone else, Steve Ford said.
“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,” Gerald Ford wrote. “For Jimmy Carter, honesty was not an aspirational goal. It was part of his very soul.”
Steve Ford also briefly honored Carter, noting that Carter’s eulogy at Gerald Ford’s funeral brought comfort and joy to the Ford family for many years, and remembering how Carter supported Ford’s wife, former first lady Betty Ford, after the funeral.
“God did a good thing when he made your dad,” Steve Ford told Carter's children.
The official state funeral in Washington on Thursday caps a long farewell that began — and will end — in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. Carter died Dec. 29 at age 100.
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