Mourners defy the cold to honor former US president Jimmy Carter

They came amid the ice and snow, bundled in parkas and long johns, expecting an hours-long wait in the sub-freezing temperatures and whipping winds.

- Maya C. Miller

Instead, the mourners who journeyed through the maze of barricades around the Capitol early in the morning on Jan 8 to pay their final respects to former US president Jimmy Carter were shocked to find such a short queue, waiting just 10 to 20 minutes at most to honor the 39th president, who died at 100 in December.

Parents pushed strollers. Children and adults alike lumbered into the Capitol dressed in insulated snow pants and clunky winter boots.

The Rotunda saw fewer celebrities by the late afternoon of Jan 8 than it had for previous presidents, although country music stars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood came.

President-elect Donald Trump and his wife Melania, both wearing black coats, stopped by on the evening of Jan 8 to pay their respects.

But it was the slow and steady stream of regular people - as well as several members of Congress, staff, military leaders and dignitaries - that seemed the most fitting tableau for the lying-in-state of the humble peanut farmer from Georgia, who prided himself on living more than 60 years in a four-bedroom home valued at just over US$250,000 (S$342,000).