After Jimmy Carter’s state funeral in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 9, the body of the 39th president will be returned to his native Georgia. He will be interred next to Rosalynn Carter, his wife of 77 years who died in November 2023, in a family plot next to a willow tree in Plains.

Carter’s service at the National Cathedral will be the first presidential funeral held since 2018, when George H.W. Bush died, The New York Times reported.

Of the 39 previous presidential gravesites, all but one are either in the state where the chief executive lived or at his presidential museum.

The exception? Woodrow Wilson, who died on Feb. 3, 1924. Wilson, the nation’s 28th president, is buried at the National Cathedral in Washington.

Here are five more odd facts about the final resting places of the presidents.

2 presidents, one church

The nation’s second and sixth presidents are both buried in the same church. John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams, are interred at the United First Parish Church in Quincy, Massachusetts.

2 presidents, one cemetery

There are two instances where two presidents are buried in the same cemetery.

James Monroe, the fifth president, and John Tyler, the nation’s 10th president and first to ascend to the presidency when William Henry Harrison died in 1841, are buried at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. If one wants to get technical, the only president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, is also buried at Hollywood Cemetery.

William Howard Taft, the 27th president who later served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and John F. Kennedy, the nation’s 35th president, are buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. An eternal flame marks the gravesite of Kennedy, who was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas.

Wrapped in the flag

Among Andrew Johnson’s final wishes, the 17th president wished to be wrapped in the American flag when he was buried, according to the National Park Service.

Johnson was the third vice president to become president, taking office after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. He was also the first president to be impeached and escaped conviction -- and removal from office -- by one vote.

The Johnson family owned the cemetery property until 1906, the NPS website states. From 1906 until 1942, the cemetery was under the jurisdiction of the War Department. The first veteran burial took place in 1909; by 1939 there were 100 graves. The National Park Service took over the graveyard in 1942.

According to C-SPAN, Johnson was also buried with a copy of the Constitution placed under his head.

Not recognized

John Tyler is the only president in U.S. history not to be buried with an American flag. Tyler’s death and burial in Hollywood Cemetery in 1862 was not recognized by the U.S. government. The reason for the snub, according to the cemetery’s website, was Tyler’s allegiance to the Confederacy.

When the first Southern states seceded in 1861, Tyler led a compromise movement. When that failed, he served as a member of the Confederate House of Representatives.

Tyler wanted a simple funeral, but Confederate President Jefferson Davis hosted a large affair and had a Confederate flag draped over the former president’s coffin.

Digging it

Zachary Taylor, the nation’s 12th president, became the second chief executive to die in office.

Rumors swirled after his sudden death on July 9, 1850, that “Old Rough and Ready” had been poisoned by arsenic. His death was officially attributed to either cholera or perhaps a fatal case of gastroenteritis brought on by overindulging in cherries and milk.

To dispel the rumors, Taylor’s body was exhumed in 1991 and tested. Results showed conclusively that he had not been poisoned.

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