A church pastor originally from Ellijay played a role in the recent memorial service for former First Lady Rosalynn Carter.
Carter passed away Nov. 19 at age 96. Her memorial service was held at Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church on the campus of Atlanta’s Emory University last Tuesday.
The Rev. Mark Westmoreland, a former Ellijay resident who’s now Glenn Memorial’s senior pastor, gave the welcoming invocation at the service.
“It was a great privilege and tremendous honor for me to be part of this service celebrating her life and to be able to speak to her life, even briefly,” said Westmoreland.
About the memorial service being attended by President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, as well as former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and former first ladies Hillary Clinton, Melania Trump, Laura Bush and Michelle Obama, Westmoreland said, “I’ve never had anything of this sort before, with a figure of such prominence nationally. To sit there and look out over the front row that included all the living first ladies and two former presidents, that was quite a moment for me personally.”
Carter had been diagnosed with dementia earlier this year and had just recently entered hospice care, which her husband, the former president, has also been receiving. Westmoreland said plans for the service at Glenn Memorial had actually been in the works for more than two years in order to properly coordinate security and other logistics.
“She wanted and the (Carter) family wanted to plan well ahead for this. There were local, national and state agencies involved in the planning,” he added. “Our involvement as a church began about two years ago, but the planning had already started before we were involved with it. The decision was made to have a major public event somewhere other than in Plains, Ga., where they would later have a family service. The Carters had a very strong connection with (the Atlanta area). The Carter Center is here, and there’s certainly a connection between it and Emory, but the family also has strong ties with Emory.”
For many years, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter also had a strong connection with Gilmer County. Following Jimmy Carter’s four years as president, a creekside cabin at Walnut Mountain was their part-time residence.
During that time, both also participated in a few public events for various causes here, including various Habitat for Humanity projects and a 1984 book signing where Rosalynn autographed copies of her autobiography, “First Lady From Plains.” She donated proceeds from that book signing to the Elsie Gillam Home, a local provider of temporary housing for mothers with small children.
Westmoreland had attended some past events at the same time as the Carters, but never got to meet either of them — except for one brief occasion years ago. When Jimmy Carter was Georgia’s governor, Westmoreland met him on a Gilmer High School trip to the state Capitol.
“There were maybe about five of us high schoolers who were chosen to serve as pages. I have a picture somewhere of me in his office with him and the other folks from GHS,” he said.
Westmoreland has been a United Methodist minister for more than 40 years and senior pastor at Glenn Memorial for the past five years. While growing up here, he attended Watkins Memorial Methodist Church, the predecessor to Ellijay First United Methodist.
“That’s my home church,” he said.