Jimmy Carter (1924-2024)
On 29th December 2024, former US President Jimmy Carter died at the age of 100, after spending nearly 2 years in hospice care. He was at that time the oldest living former US President. In his memory, let’s look back at his life.
Born James Earl Carter Jr. on 1 October 1924 in Plains, Georgia, Jimmy Carter was the first of two children born to a farmer and businessman named James Earl Carter Sr. and his wife Lilian Gordy Carter, a registered nurse. Jimmy’s mother had to work long hours to provide food on the table and clothes to wear for Jimmy and his siblings. Despite growing up with a strict dad, Jimmy was allowed to the children of the black farmhands, uncommon for any white Anglo-Saxon child with strict parents at that time.
Jimmy Carter graduated from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1946 and he spent 7 years in the Navy. When these years were over, Jimmy Carter returned to Plains to gain control of the family peanut business. Jimmy’s first political win was being elected to the Georgia State Senate in 1962, having become involved in local politics. Jimmy Carter was Governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975 prior to being elected as President of the United States in 1976. He was in office from 1977 until 1981 when he was voted out by Republican supporters who had voted in actor-turned-politician Ronald Reagan.
Two massive achievements during his presidency include the establishment of two new cabinet level departments (Department of Energy and the Department of Education) as well as the establishment national energy policy which concerns price control, conservation and the development of new technologies.
Jimmy Carter made history when he brokered a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel at Camp David in 1978. This saw him receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his work in finding peaceful solutions to international conflicts, human rights and advancing democracy as well as promoting economic and social development. You are probably wondering what happened to Jimmy’s peanut farm when he entered the Oval Office? Well, upon becoming president in 1977, Jimmy Carter possessed a control interest in Carter Farms, which consisted between 2,000 and 3,000 acres of land alongside the Carter Peanut Warehouse. These loans eventually reached $6.5 million which would be a least to the tune of $31 million today when adjusted for economic inflation. He announced a plan before taking office in which he sold the entirety of his personal stock and diverted royalties from his autobiography into a foundations that established a future presidential library (a museum dedicated to his life’s work as POTUS) to house presidential papers as well as having his interest in Carter’s Warehouse and Carter Farms Inc. to the trust. The approach’s goal was to ensure that any challenges in Plains as a result of agricultural challenges and decisions would not influence his revenue in any way, shape or form.
Although Jimmy met the woman who would become Rosalynn Carter in 1945 during his time studying at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, their first ever meeting happened back in 1927, when Rosalynn was a new-born and Jimmy was only 3 years old. However it would take another couple of years before Rosalynn was drawn to Jimmy when she caught a glimpse of him in his Annapolis uniform and the pair shared a surprise kiss in the back of the car owned by Ruth Carter Stapleton’s boyfriend. With his studies completed a year later, the pair wedded and their marriage produced 3 sons and a daughter who have since given them many grandkids with one of them, a grandson having appeared on television during his granddad’s final months. Rosalynn also worked hard during her hubby’s presidency like the Mental Health System Act that was passed September 1980 only for it to be repealed after Ronald Reagan came to office after the Carters were voted out. The Mental Health System Act meant that it was easier for people with mental health issues in all 50 US States to get he help they needed with those community mental health centres being provided grants which meant that they received better funding. Unfortunately, Reagan’s administration repealed it and that meant each 50 US States had to decide for themselves whether to fund their own local mental health centres or not. Rosalynn was diagnosed with Dementia during the last few months of her life and she died a few days after going into hospice in November 2023.
In 1982, Jimmy Carter established a centre called the Carter Presidential Center at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia where democracy and human rights are the main focus. This centre’s dedicated to alleviating human suffering and advancing human rights. Their goal with alleviating human suffering include aiding in the improvement of healthcare and resolving conflicts.
Carter also wrote many books since leaving office and up to his final illness and to name a few they are:
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A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety (2015)
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Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis (2005)
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Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid (2006)
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An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood (2000)
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A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power (2014)
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Faith: A Journey for All (2018)
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The Hornet’s Nest (2003)
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White House Diary (2010)
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Living Faith (1991)
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A Remarkable Mother (2008)
With US President Joe Biden due to give the eulogy and Jimmy Carter to be buried in Plains, Georgia next to his wife Rosalynn, what is the legacy of Jimmy Carter?
The answer is that Jimmy Carter has a rich legacy that includes his efforts to peacefully resolve international conflicts, advancing democracy and human rights and promoting economic and social development. It is thanks to his work that Jimmy Carter received the aforementioned Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
