Ted Mondale, son of the late Vice President and Minnesota politician Walter Mondale, rose to read a letter from his father in honor of his former running mate at the state funeral of former President Jimmy Carter Thursday.
In his father's place, the son of the former vice president read Mondale's already-written eulogy, writing that he was “surprised” that Carter asked him to be his running mate for the 1976 campaign, saying that his only requests were that he make a real contribution to the team, and not be “embarrassed, as many of my predecessors had.”
Mondale said that Carter “protected” him from “humiliation” faced by other vice presidents.
"President Carter and I became very close friends," Ted Mondale read. "We often spent hours together throughout the day. We were working on real problems, not wasting time. The personal relationship we established while in office continued throughout our life."
Mondale said one of Carter's biggest commitments was to support and elevate women in the workplace, even in the late 1970's, well before it became the norm.
"In all - in all - he appointed five times as many women to the federal bench as all of the previous presidents had from the beginning of our country," Mondale wrote.
Walter Mondale's eulogy also touched on what he called Carter's principled and decent leadership, and commitment to civil and human rights.
President Joe Biden and others also eulogized the former president who died in December at the age of 100, the longest-lived president in U.S. history.
In attendance are five living men who have also served as president: Biden, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and George W. Bush.
There are also current and former vice presidents, supreme court justices and congressional leaders to mark the somber occasion.
The former president will be buried in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, following a private funeral service at Maranatha Baptist Church, where the former president taught Sunday school.