In a few days, Jimmy Carter will be celebrated in a towering cathedral in Washington by other American presidents, well-known philanthropists and other world leaders.

But before that, a hearse carrying the remains of Mr. Carter, the nation’s 39th president, pulled up to a farmhouse in Georgia on Saturday. There he raised chickens, helped his father harvest peanuts, and began a seemingly improbable, centuries-long journey that took him from Plains, Georgia, to the heights of political influence and on a world tour to eradicate disease and protect democracy.

It was the first stop on a farewell journey that traced the scope of a long and varied life. The walk began and, like his life, will begin and end in a slice of rural Georgia where he was born and raised and where he died on December 29th at the age of 100.

In the coming days, the series of memorial events will include a discussion of the impact Mr. Carter left on the world, including the legacy he left after a single term in the White House and a life after the presidency that was also formative was him.

The journey began on Saturday with an appreciation of the places and people who had a significant influence on him.

He wrote books that lovingly recounted a childhood in which he milked cows, learned to cook possums (the taste: “unique”) and drew water from a well. He also described the tense racial dynamics of the segregated South and the ongoing stresses of the Civil War.

“I grew up in one of the families whose people could not forget that we had been conquered, while most of our neighbors were black whose grandparents had been liberated in the same conflict,” Mr. Carter wrote in “An Hour Before Daylight.” . ,” a memoir of his early life that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2002. “Although our two races are inseparable in our daily lives, they have been separated by social customs, misinterpretations of Scripture, and the unchallenged law of the land as ordered by the Supreme Court of the United States.”

The journey began around 10 a.m. in Americus, Georgia, after his remains were carried to the hearse by current and former special agents in charge of the intelligence unit protecting Mr. Carter.

In addition to a stop at his childhood home, now maintained by the National Park Service, the hearse passed through Plains, a town of about 500 people that had been his home his entire life.

As the hearse and motorcade stopped at the stretch of highway that ran alongside the farmhouse outside Plains, the bells were rung 39 times, a nod to his position in the line of American presidents.

It was a clear morning and people from far and wide had come to settle along the route. Heather Baade, 54, traveled from Austin, Texas, and expressed a sentiment shared by many others: “I love Jimmy Carter.” She admired his ability to balance his deep Christian faith with secular leadership. She also believed he was “trying to win the heart of the whole country,” she said, “which we don’t see much these days.”

Robert Garland, a retired Miami-Dade County sheriff’s deputy, was assigned to Mr. Carter’s security detail in 1991 when the former president visited Miami for his home construction work for Habitat for Humanity. “He may have been our greatest president,” said Mr. Garland, 64. “He led with dignity, honor and respect.”

The motorcade is scheduled to wind from Plains along country roads lined with farmland and forests to reach the sprawling highways on the outskirts of Atlanta.

There, city and state leaders, including Gov. Brian Kemp, the Republican governor of Georgia, and Andre Dickens, the Democratic mayor of Atlanta, were expected to watch in front of the gold-domed Capitol. Those gathered should observe a minute’s silence.

There begins a tour of the streets of Atlanta, as the hearse carries the former president through a city where he had a lasting presence. He loved Braves games. He would stop by Manuel’s Tavern, a bar that was a regular meeting place for Georgia Democrats. And he worked countless hours at the Carter Center, the nonprofit he founded with his wife after leaving the White House.

The day’s journey is expected to end there, in the center of a tree-covered area in northeast Atlanta. A private service will be held in the afternoon and will be off Saturday evening and remain there until early Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning the journey continues to Washington, where he will lie in state in the US Capitol for a day and a half. A funeral is planned for Thursday morning at the Washington National Cathedral, where President Biden is expected to deliver a eulogy. President-elect Donald J. Trump has said he will attend.

From there, Mr. Carter is taken back to Plains. He will be buried Thursday next to his 77-year-old wife, Rosalynn, right in front of the home they built together in 1961.