Remembering Jimmy Carter, who passed away one year ago
Editor’s note: This article is part of We the People, a series marking the upcoming 250th birthday of the United States of America by Gray Media, parent company of WANF Atlanta News First.
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — James Earl Carter, Jr. — the only Georgian to ever ascend to the nation’s highest elective office — passed away one year ago Monday.
Carter, the nation’s 39th president and longest lived ex-president in history, died around 3:45 p.m. on December 29, 2024, at the age of 100.
Carter died at his home in Plains, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, lived after their years in the White House.
On Feb. 18, 2023, The Carter Center announced the former president had entered hospice care at his home in Plains.
Rosalynn, the former first lady, who had been diagnosed as suffering from dementia, died Nov. 19, 2023, only days after the center announced she had also entered hospice care.
On July 7, 2023, the Carters marked their 77th wedding anniversary. One of the couple’s last public appearances together came on Sept. 23, when they drove through the annual Plains Peanut Festival. The Carters had visited the Plains Peanut Festival before, which celebrates the presidential couple and the region’s cash crop.
Carter attended Mrs. Carter’s public memorial service on Nov. 28, 2023, followed by her private funeral in Plains the next day.
Jimmy Carter had last been seen in public on the occasion of his 100th birthday, when his family accompanied him outside his home to witness a military flyover in his honor.
Carter was born October 1, 1924, in Plains, a small farming town located about 150 miles south of downtown Atlanta in Sumter County. He grew up in the nearby community of Archery.
Carter attended Georgia Southwestern College and the Georgia Institute of Technology before heading to the U.S. Naval Academy, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1946. While serving in the Navy, he became a submariner and rose to the rank of lieutenant.
On July 7, 1946, Carter married Rosalynn Smith.
Seven years later, he resigned from the Navy and returned to Georgia. Carter was an active member of the community and eventually entered the political world in 1962, when he was elected to the Georgia Senate.
Four years later, he would run for governor, but lost in a primary to the eventual winner, Lester Maddox. Carter would try again four years later, and this time, would cruise to an easy victory over Republican Hal Suit. He was sworn in as Georgia’s 76th governor on January 12, 1971.
Exactly three years to the date of his inauguration into the governor’s mansion, Carter announced his candidacy for president of the United States. He would go onto win the Democratic nomination in 1976 and was elected on November 2, narrowly defeating incumbent Republican Gerald Ford.
The first — and still only — president from Georgia capped off the day by walking in the inauguration parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, something never seen from a just-inaugurated president.
Carter’s rise to the White House ranks as one of the most unlikely political victories in U.S. history. He was virtually unknown to the country, and campaigned on a promise to never tell a lie.
Carter was inaugurated on January 20, 1977, but would only serve on term in office. He was defeated soundly in the 1980 election by Republican Ronald Reagan.
Carter’s biography, on the official Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum website, lists his accomplishments, both foreign and domestic while in office:
“Significant foreign policy accomplishments of his administration included the Panama Canal treaties, the Camp David Accords, the treaty of peace between Egypt and Israel, the SALT II treaty with the Soviet Union, and the establishment of U.S. diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China.
“He championed human rights throughout the world. On the domestic side, the administration’s achievements included a comprehensive energy program conducted by a new Department of Energy; deregulation in energy, transportation, communications, and finance; major educational programs under a new Department of Education; and major environmental protection legislation, including the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.”
While some presidents ride off into the sunset after serving in office, Carter was just getting started. In 1982, Carter became a University Distinguished Professor at Emory University in Atlanta and founded the Carter Center.
The Carters later become the public face of Habitat for Humanity. They both volunteered for the organization for 35 years, helping build homes alongside thousands of volunteers throughout the years.
In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”
Carter taught Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains for nearly four decades. Thousands of people from all over the world would line up outside the small church to hear his ministry over the years. Some say Carter knew the Bible better than any president since Abraham Lincoln.
Carter officially became America’s oldest living ex-president on March 21, 2019, surpassing George H.W. Bush, who died in November 2018 at the age of 94 years and 171 days old. Prior to Bush, previous record holders were Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Herbert Hoover and John Adams.
Carter was diagnosed with cancer in August 2015 at age 91 after having surgery to remove a lesion on his liver. After having the surgery, Carter announced the cancer had spread to other parts of his body. Later that year, the Carter Center said he had been cleared of the disease.
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The Carters had three sons, one daughter, nine grandsons, three granddaughters, five great-grandsons, and eight great-granddaughters.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Postal Service released its commemorative Forever stamp honoring Carter in conjunction with his 101st birthday. The stamp art is a 1982 oil-on-linen painting created in preparation for President Carter’s official White House portrait.
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