Gloria Carter Spann Of Plains, Ga.

PLAINS, Ga. - Gloria Carter Spann, the last surviving sibling of former President Carter, died yesterday of the type of cancer that killed three other family members. She was 63.

Spann had been diagnosed in December as having pancreatic cancer, which killed her father, James Earl Carter; her sister, Ruth Carter Stapleton; and her other brother, Billy Carter.

Her mother, Lillian Carter, had breast cancer that spread to other organs, including her pancreas, before she died in 1983.

Spann, who lived on a farm southwest of Plains, died at Sumter Regional Hospital about 1 a.m. The former president, his wife, Rosalynn, several close friends and Gloria Spann's husband, Walter Spann, were with her at her death.

Spann, an avid motorcyclist, will be buried today at a graveside service at Lebanon Cemetery in Plains following a funeral procession led by fellow motorcyclists.

Carrie Harmon, a spokeswoman at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, said the former president planned no statement about his sister's death. Carter will depart as scheduled on a Middle East trip later this week.

As residents of her small farming community mourned Spann's death, a group of about 10 fellow bikers, some in jeans and leather jackets, consoled her husband at the family farm.

The Spanns were described by friends as private people who shunned the publicity that Carter's presidency brought to the south Georgia town of 600.

A 6-foot wire fence protects the Spann's white frame house from unwanted guests. A sign posted at one of the gates says, ``Motorcycles Only.''

Spann belonged to the Georgia Motorcycle Rights organization and was named Most Outstanding Female Motorcyclist in the nation in 1978.

Spann was co-author of the book ``Letters from Home'' in the early 1970s, based on letters written by her mother while she served with the Peace Corps in India.

Besides her brother and husband, Spann is survived by a son, William C. Spann.