Jimmy Carter, family members arrive at Rosalynn Carter funeral wearing leis. Here's why

Rosalynn Carter loved living in Hawaii.

So much so, according to Carter family lore, she refused to speak during a long car ride when her husband Jimmy Carter elected to leave the Navy and move the family back to their native Plains, Ga.

"That family story is that they rode in the car from Connecticut to Plains, Georgia and when Mom had something to say to Dad, she would say, 'Jack, would you tell your father...," said James Earl "Chip" Carter III, telling the story during a tribute to his late mother Tuesday at a memorial service in Atlanta.

Carter, a 1946 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who served in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets, is the only president to qualify as a submariner and was an officer aboard nuclear subs.

On Wednesday at a funeral in Plains, members of the Carter family wore leis, a necklace made of flowers common in Hawaii. Jimmy Carter wore a red lei and some family members wore Hawaiian shirts.

Rosalynn Carter was also photographed wearing carnation leis on prominent days of her husband’s presidential campaign. Carter died Nov. 19 after a brief stay in hospice.

Chip Carter said Tuesday his mother, even after a dementia diagnosis earlier this year, would reference the family's time in Hawaii.

"One day, my mother was sitting with my wife, Becky, and she was reminiscing on what it was like to go to live in Hawaii, and she was talking about learning all the native dances," he said. "She got up from the sofa, pushed her walker away, which she couldn't take her step without, and proceeded to do the hula for two or three minutes. She grabbed her walker, turned around, sat back on the sofa, turned to my wife and said, 'That's how you do it.'"

USA TODAY reporter Chris Cann contributed to this report from Plains.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Jimmy Carter, family wear flower necklaces (lei) to Rosalynn's funeral