Former President Jimmy Carter passed
on Sunday at the age of 100. He was the 39th president, a Nobel Peace
Prize winner, and though he only served one term in the White House, his
career post presidency was robust. Carter recently made news after
saying that he wanted to live long enough to cast his vote in the
general election for Vice President Kamala Harris. He was preceded in
death a little more than a year ago by his wife Rosalynn, who was 96 when she died in November 2023.
Carter came to Washington, DC in 1976 after serving as governor of
Georgia. He had been a peanut farmer and was a US Navy veteran. He died
at his home in Plains, Georgia, per his son James 'Chip' E. Carter III.
Carter had been in hospice care
since being discharged from hospital treatment in February 2023. He
decided to spend his remaining days at home rather than attempting to
medically extend his already long life. His Carter Center, founded in 1982, lives on without him.
In 1980, Carter lost his bid for a second term to California Governor
Ronald Reagan, who ushered in the politically conservative, if socially
libertine, 1980s. Carter's presidency, puncutated by oil and hostage
crises, inflated gas and energy prices, and a speech where he told
Americans struggling to heat their homes to put on a sweater, was seen
as a failure.
The nation veered away from what was then a burgeoning nuclear power
industry when there was a meltdown at Three Miles Island in central
Pennsylvania. When Iranian forces siezed the US Embassy in Tehran, 52
Americans were taken hostage and they were not released until after
Carter's tenure, on the day he left office and Reagan took over. This
was widely seen as a pivotal issue during the election season.
Of his beloved wife at the time of her death, Carter said "Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished. She
gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as
Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported
me."
After completing their term in office, the Carters went back to
Georgia and co-founded the Carter Center in Atlanta, where Rosalynn
continued her work to destigmatize mental illness and promote more
access to care. Carter wrote 33 books and won three Grammy Awards for
recordings of his audio books.
Carter was the oldest surviving president, living on for four decades
after his White House term. He was active in public service and
advocated for human rights abroad. He lived a modest life in his home
town in a ranch home he and Rosalynn built in 1961. He will be buried
next to Rosalynn at their home under a shady willow tree near a pond on
their property.