Gloria Spann, 63, sister of Jimmy Carter

Gloria Carter Spann, the last surviving sibling of former President Jimmy Carter, died Monday of the same cancer that killed three other members of the family. She was 63. Mrs. Spann was diagnosed in December as having pancreatic cancer, the same disease that 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 had spread to other organs, including her pancreas, when she died in 1983.

Mrs. Spann, who lived in Plains, died about 1 a.m. at Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus. She was with the 65-year-old former president and his wife, Rosalynn, several close friends and her husband, Walter Spann.

Relatives said she had been hospitalized for several weeks.

"It's very sad for all of us," said Billy Carter's widow, Sybil. "It's just something we don't understand. Our family is grieved and saddened."

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

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