PLAINS, Ga. - Former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who died this month at age 96, was laid to rest Wednesday in Plains, Ga., the tiny farm town where she met Jimmy Carter as an infant, married him as a teenager and where they returned after the White House.

Former President Jimmy Carter displayed remarkable strength and determination as he attended his wife's funeral service and celebration of life on Wednesday at the church they attended in Plains, Georgia.

It was just the second public appearance for the former president over the last several months, after he entered hospice care in February.

The Carters did grow close to their 1976 opponents, Gerald and Betty Ford, after that campaign. Jimmy Carter said he maintained a mostly strong relationship with President George H. W. Bush, another Republican. But the Carters outlived both Fords, the elder Bush and Barbara Bush.

Rosalynn Carter was remembered Tuesday as a former U.S. first lady who leveraged her fierce intellect and political power to put her deep Christian faith into action by always helping others, especial

Her frail husband a silent witness, Rosalynn Carter was celebrated by her family and closest friends Wednesday in the same tiny town where she and Jimmy Carter were born, forever their home base as they climbed to the White House and traveled the world for humanitarian causes.

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter returned home to Plains, Georgia, where she was laid to rest Wednesday, surrounded by loved ones and her husband of 77 years, former President Jimmy Carter.