Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States and the first POTUS to ever reach the age of 100, sadly passed away on December 29, 2024. His long life was filled with extraordinary moments and accomplishments, as well as a strong marriage to his wife, Rosalynn, who died in November 2023. Here we take a look back at the life and legacy of this complex man.
Born in 1924 Carter’s family moved a few times before settling in Georgia, where he would meet Rosalynn as a child. His mother, a nurse, actually delivered Rosalynn and they grew up together, reconnecting as adults. They married right after he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946 and spent the 77 years together. Of their 4 children, their youngest daughter was raised in the public spotlight as the daughter of the POTUS.
Carter worked on the Navy’s nuclear submarine program for years, but moved back home to Plains, GA, to save the family peanut farm following the death of his father in 1953. This was a rocky period in their marriage as Rosalynn felt both her usefulness and the life they had built in Schenectady, New York, was over. Little did she know that they would work together on so many worthy projects throughout their long marriage.
It was after the farm had been stabilized with Rosalynn’s help that Carter became active in politics, running for chairman of the Sumter County School Board before being elected to the Senate as Democrat. His 1970 campaign for Governor of Georgia, a second attempt, was run at first as a segregated race. After winning the Democratic party runoff he switched strategies, campaigning to Black voters and advocating for desegregation. He announced during his inaugural speech that the time for segregation and racism was over. Once in office Carter set to reorganizing and reducing the number of departments, protecting nature areas, and funding an early childhood education program.
Only 6 years later he would use both the strategies of reaching out to Black voters in his campaign for president, as well as making sweeping moves towards efficiency once in office. He won the presidency by only a slim margin, but promised voters that he would never lie to them. Thanks to Carter the Department of Energy and the Department of Education were created, though he navigated many tough issued during his time in office.
A large portion of Carter’s presidency was dominated by the Iran hostage crisis (resolved on his final day in office) and the energy shortage of 1979. He was an early advocate of solar energy and favored an conservationist approach to environmental matters. Carter lost to Regan instead of serving a second term, but went on to use his influence for good for the rest of his life.
Carter would go on to found the Carter Center, a human rights organization. He won a Nobel Peace Prize for this in 2002, the only former-president to do. Along with Rosalynn he also worked to bring Habitat for Humanity into public view by speaking on the importance of housing for all as well as famously driving nails to build houses for the now-famous non-profit.
Carter wrote 32 books during his long life, the first of which was published during his campaign for president. He wrote on topics ranging from world politics to poetry to religion and aging. In addition to being an author, he was well-known during his presidency to enjoy tennis more than just about any other sport. He also used running as an effective way to squeeze in a bit of exercise into his busy presidential life.
Carter was also a painter, a fly fisher, and even made his own wine. He continued to teach Sunday school at his church well into his golden years and was an active member of the congregation.
A surprising fact that many people don’t know about Jimmy Carter is that he had a real love of rock and roll and personally knew many of the most famous musicians of the 1970s-1990s, including Paul Simon, Greg Allman, and Bono. He also had a special fondness for the music of Bob Dylan, something he had the chance to tell him in person in 1974 when the two shared a conversation about Dylan’s lyrics and Carter’s spirituality. He also made friends with country stars Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson.
Carter’s long career in the public eye, his tireless efforts at equality around the globe, and his love of his country have made him a universally beloved politician today, despite the fact that his popularity when he left the White House had been remarkably low.
In addition to his many efforts to make the world a better place, Carter also had an acceptance of death that few can attain. After being diagnosed with cancer that had spread to his brain in 2015, Carter was prepared for the worst possible outcome. However, a series of treatments for the cancer were successful. In early 2023 Carter began hospice care yet lived almost 2 years beyond when his time had been predicted to come. About cancer and confronting death he said, “I wasn’t afraid or particularly sorrowful, except that I wouldn’t see the people I loved anymore,” in a 2018 interview for Parade magazine, “But I didn’t have any feeling of resentfulness or fear, and I was surprised at that.”
President Biden has declared January 9, 2025 to be a day of mourning for former President Jimmy Carter and ordered government offices closed that day. This is the same day of Carter’s state funeral. Funerary events will begin Saturday, January 4, in Americus, GA, moving to Plains, and then to Atlanta to the Carter Presidential Center with Carter’s body set to later lie in state in the Capitol rotunda in Washington DC. Flags will be flown at half mast for 30 days to honor Carter, who was the longest-lived former POTUS in US history.
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