The public drama of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter continues this week with a public memorial service and a family funeral, the kind of events that pull people into church sanctuaries, especially in the Bible Belt.

It’s safe to say that the more private funeral today — in the couple’s home church, Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia — will be a worship service in a progressive Baptist congregation. It will be interesting to see if footage is provided featuring the eulogy, along with the hymns and scriptures chosen by the Carters.

The memorial service was held in Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church, near the Carter Center at Emory University. The 99-year-old president — 10 months into home hospice care — spent Monday night at the center, close to where is wife’s body lay in repose. Atlanta is 164 miles from the Carter home in Plains.

Let’s give credit to the Associated Press for getting some mention of the couple’s faith into the lede of its story about the public, rather political, memorial service:

ATLANTA (AP) — 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, especially those who needed it most.

A gathering of first ladies and presidents — including her 99-year-old husband Jimmy Carter — joined other political figures in tribute. But a parade of speakers said her global stature wasn’t what defined her.

Later on, there was this, as well:

Family members described how Rosalynn Carter went from growing up in a small town where she had never spoken to a group larger than her Sunday school class to being a global figure who visited more than 120 countries.

Kathryn Cade, who stayed on as a close adviser as Rosalynn Carter helped build The Carter Center and its global reach, called Rosalynn Carter’s time as first lady “really just one chapter in a life that was about caring for others.”

GetReligion readers may recall that I chided AP for producing a stunningly faith-free obit for the former First Lady. Here’s that post: “Dear Associated Press editors — The story of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter includes lots of faith.”

The bottom line:

… It is impossible to write about the Carters without paying some attention to the topics that mattered the most to them, as opposed to the subjects that matter the most to political-desk journalists. If you know lots of people who have followed the Carters for decades … you know the role that their evolving, progressive Baptist convictions played in their story. …

Much of the Carter coverage today is starkly secular and faith-free. How is that possible?

The memorial service coverage was all over the board, which is — in a strange way — an improvement over the earlier obits.

Readers seeking an overview of the coverage can turn to the three memorial-service stories offered by The New York Times.

Yes, three stories. This allowed the newspaper of record to range from straightforward writing about the memorial to details (#triggerwarning) about the politics of the fashion choices made by the various First Ladies in attendance. Hold that thought.

The main story (“Memorial Celebrates Rosalynn Carter’s Life, a ‘Public Love Story’ “) offered this solid overture, with the rare lede that opened with a pronoun:

Her journey took her from the smallest of small towns in rural Georgia to the majesty of the White House, from the campaign trails of Iowa and New Hampshire to refugee camps in Asia and impoverished villages in Africa.

But in the end, the final chapter of Rosalynn Carter’s story brought her back to Georgia, to a simple but elegant church for a simple but elegant memorial service where presidents and first ladies and governors and senators paid their respects but the only ones who spoke from the pulpit on her behalf were her pastors, family and friends.

That was Mrs. Carter. She could navigate the currents of big-time American politics and confront foreign dictators, but she never forgot her humble roots and wanted to be remembered not just as a trailblazing first lady but a caregiver for the world’s most vulnerable. …

“My grandmother doesn’t need a eulogy,” Jason Carter, one of her grandsons, told the mourners, quoting something he had been told beforehand. “Her life was a sermon. It was a mighty testament to the power of faith and the power of a deep and determined love. And she lived this public love story that we all know of, that has inspired the world including in these last days.”

Former President Carter was present, to the amazement of many. He was not able to speak and, in my opinion, only his lifelong grit and determination prevented him from being on oxygen support at this point in a multiyear cancer fight.

The Times report about the president included a reference — picked up by several other newsrooms — to daughter Amy Carter reading a love letter that her father wrote decades ago to her mother, while he was in the U.S. Navy. Yes, tissues were mandatory, for anyone present with a heart and a pulse:

“My darling, every time I have ever been away from you, I have been thrilled when I returned to discover just how wonderful you are,” Mr. Carter wrote in the letter. “While I’m away, I try to convince myself that you really are not, could not be, as sweet and beautiful as I remember. But when I see you, I fall in love with you all over again.”

“Does that seem strange to you?” he went on. “It doesn’t to me. Goodbye, darling. Until tomorrow, Jimmy.”

What about Gray Lady ink on the politics of First Lady fashion?

There … was Mrs. Clinton, in a trademark pantsuit — the one that became her uniform after she left the White House, the one in which she blazed a path as the first first lady to become a senator, presidential nominee and secretary of state — with a collarless long jacket and pearl earrings.

Was that reporting or analysis? Check this out:

Here was Mrs. Obama, in all-black turtleneck, blazer and trousers, a mix-and-match amalgamation of pieces from different designers (including, for the jacket, Versace). Her hair was pulled back in a low ponytail and left natural, a nod to the sartorial freedom she found after leaving the fishbowl of Washington and navigating the complexities of what it meant to be part of the first Black first family of the nation — including, as she once told Ellen DeGeneres, straightening her hair to make it more reassuring to the white electorate.

Laura Bush chose a “classic black sheath dress and double strand of pearls” while Jill Bush wore a “simple black skirt suit with a pair of Dior slingback pumps with dressmaker tape and little bows at the side.”

This brings us to the big fashion news. Yes, we are talking about this public sighting of Melania Trump.

This was an event when gray was outrageous, for some.

As it happens, Mrs. Trump was also wearing Dior, one of her favored brands during her time as first lady. But unlike everyone else, she was not wearing black. Rather, that Dior was a gray tweed coat with a voluminous skirt, structured and tightly belted. It was reminiscent of the protective clothing, as well as the luxury labels, that became her signature during the Trump administration.

The color and the style made her stand out, made her look a part of the pageantry but not of it. And they made the choice seem like a symbol — a sign, perhaps, of Mrs. Trump’s historic ambivalence toward the role of first lady and her reluctance to play to the expectations that surround it, as well as her husband’s norm-trampling tendencies.

OK, that’s enough of that.

I will end with this potential news hook for journalists who are interested in, well, the Southern Baptist politics of these events. The Carters, of course, left the Southern Baptist Convention because of differences over the ordination of women and several other social issues.

Thus, this item at Baptist Press caught my eye. I offer this with a nod to Bobby Ross, Jr., who tends to notice church-based efforts of this kind:

The chefs who are preparing meals for hundreds of Secret Service agents, Georgia Highway Patrol troopers, National Guard troops, and others providing security during three days of memorials for former first lady Rosalynn Carter have vast experience feeding huge crowds, usually in disaster zones.

In their trademark yellow shirts and caps, Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers have been busy in mobile kitchens preparing tasty cuisine that has included, for evening meals, roast beef, mashed potatoes, green beans, salads, rolls and fire-roasted corn. At lunchtime, they’ve served up chicken fajitas, turkey sandwiches, ham sandwiches, chips and soft drinks. For breakfast, they’ve been dishing up grits, a southern favorite, along with eggs and omelets.

All of it is provided at no charge.

Let me know if any of the family funeral coverage — good or bad — is worth discussion.

FIRST IMAGE: From NBC News coverage of the event, stored at YouTube.