Jimmy Carter turns 100: from a Georgia farm to the White House, Nobel Peace Prize, and beyond
Despite living in hospice care, Carter remains engaged in politics, and is eager to vote for Vice-President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election
Jimmy Carter reached his 100th birthday on Tuesday, the first time an American president has lived a full century and the latest milestone in a life that took the son of a Depression-era farmer to the White House and across the world as a Nobel Peace Prize-winning humanitarian and advocate for democracy.
Living the last 19 months in home hospice care in Plains, the Georgia Democrat and 39th US president has continued to defy expectations, just as he did through a remarkable rise from his family peanut farming and warehouse business to the world stage. He served one presidential term from 1977 to 1981 and then worked more than four decades leading The Carter Center, which he and his wife Rosalynn co-founded in 1982 to “wage peace, fight disease, and build hope.”
“Not everybody gets 100 years on this earth, and when somebody does, and when they use that time to do so much good for so many people, it’s worth celebrating,” Jason Carter, the former president’s grandson and chair of The Carter Center governing board, said in an interview.
“These last few months, 19 months, now that he’s been in hospice, it’s been a chance for our family to reflect,” he continued, “and then for the rest of the country and the world to really reflect on him. That’s been a really gratifying time.”
The former president was born on October 1, 1924 in Plains, where he has lived more than 80 of his 100 years. He is expected to mark his birthday in the same one-storey home he and Rosalynn built in the early 1960s – before his first election to the Georgia state Senate. The former first lady, who was also born in Plains, died last November at 96.
At the White House, the front lawn is being decorated with a display of large lettering declaring “Happy Birthday President Carter” and the number 100. Carter has asked current US President Joe Biden to eulogise him at his state funeral when the time comes. Biden was a young Delaware senator in 1976 and was the first sitting senator to endorse Carter’s campaign.
