Visiting the Carter Family Graves at Lebanon Cemetery

Penny, the lovely lady who works at the Georgia Visitor Center in Plains, provided us with information where the Carter family is buried in Lebanon Cemetery.

Lebanon Cemetery is west

 of Plains on Old Plains

Highway.

If you're driving to Richland, the older section of the cemetery is on the right side of 

the road.   

We are looking for James
Earl & Lillian Carter's graves.

There are three graves here.

James Earl Carter died
July 22, 1953

Lillian Gordy Carter died
October 30, 1983

The third grave is Billy Carter's.

He died on September 25, 1988.

Leaving a coin on a grave marker

is done as a remembrance

of the deceased.

1988 was a tough year for the Carter family.

Eric and I walked across the road to look for  Gloria Carter Spann's grave.

Ruth Carter Stapleton is buried in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

The Spann Graves

Gloria Carter Spann died

March 5, 1990

The inscriptions read:

"Missed by all who knew her."

"She rides in Harley Heaven."

I wanted to visit Gloria Carter Spann's grave after reading about her in Bonnie Angelo's book, First Mothers.  Lillian Carter, Gloria's mom, was happy that Gloria and Walter enjoyed collecting and riding motorcycles.  They were members of Georgia Motorcycle Rights Organization.  Gloria was named Most Outstanding Female Motorcyclist in the nation 

in 1978.  

Penny told me that one hundred Hells Angels members rode their motorcycles in Gloria's funeral cortege.  

Gloria's husband, Walter Spann
died June 5, 2012.

The inscription reads:
"He was a good man."







The Carter family is like other families across the United States, and the world.  The lives of the deceased are remembered in often told stories and their deaths are mourned by family and friends.