NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Thousands of miles from Washington, where the funeral of Jimmy Carter is set for next week, an Indian village named after the former U.S. president fondly remembers his visit almost 50 years ago, paying tribute.
A one-term president from 1977, Carter, who died on Sunday aged 100, is to be given a state funeral at the Washington National Cathedral on Thursday.
'Carterpuri', or the 'Village of Carter', is a dusty hamlet about 20 miles (32 km) outside Delhi, which was called Daulatpur Nasirabad, when Carter's (NYSE:CRI) mother, Lillian, briefly lived and worked there as a nurse and volunteer in the 1960s.
"Villagers dressed his wife in traditional attire ... He (Carter) also tried out a hookah," one resident, Moti Ram, recalled of the time Carter, accompanied by his wife, Rosalynn, walked through the village.
Preparations were made months in advance of the visit on Jan. 3, 1978, some villagers told news agency ANI, in which Reuters has a minority stake. The village was spruced up, and welcome programmes were held in its main square.
So taken were the residents by the Carters' visit that they changed the name of their village in his honour.
This week, on hearing of his death, they paid tribute to Carter by garlanding a framed picture of him and offering flowers before it, media said.
Eric Garcetti, the U.S. ambassador to India, mentioned the village in a post on X after Carter's death, saying it was a "testament to the high regard in which he was held here in India".
He posted a picture from the visit that showed Rosalynn, dressed in traditional attire, laughing, as Carter stood beside her surrounded by a crowd of villagers.
A letter that Carter sent later, thanking residents for their efforts in making the event "successful and so personally satisfying" is among the village's most prized possessions, along with the photographs.