{"id":18199,"date":"2024-07-23T08:00:37","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T12:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=18199"},"modified":"2024-09-17T13:21:27","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T17:21:27","slug":"39-carter-jimmy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=18199","title":{"rendered":"#39. Carter, Jimmy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/span>Linda Lou Burton posting from Little Rock, Arkansas \u2013<\/em>James Earl Carter Jr, aka Jimmy Carter (b 1924) was the 39th<\/sup> President of the United States from 1977-1981. As this is written, he is the oldest living former president, and the longest-lived president in US history; reaching his 100th<\/sup> birthday October 1, 2024. He didn\u2019t win the presidency by landslide; and he didn\u2019t get re-elected for a second term. But he is, by all show of hands, the best-loved \u201cafter president\u201d we\u2019ve ever had. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 (21 years after he left the White House) “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.” He has befriended the presidents who served after him \u2013 Democrats and Republicans alike, offering advice and \u201cbuck-up support\u201d as they have come to him; he\u2019s critiqued them too, when he thought they were headed in the wrong direction. He has attended their inaugurations and their funerals; he has voted in every presidential election and expects to do so in 2024.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>One of the most down-to-earth gifts of time he has given is his work with Habitat for Humanity. Just out there hammering nails and hanging doors and making sure a family has a decent house to live in. He and former First Lady Rosalynn began as advocates for Habitat in 1984, leading major volunteer building events in the United States, and many Asian countries. \u201cHabitat isn\u2019t charity, it\u2019s partnership,\u201d said Jimmy. \u201cThe people who will live in the homes work side by side with the volunteers who help build them. Rosalynn and I have been small players in a global effort to alleviate the curse of homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Home, Down On The Farm<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>James Earl Carter Jr (Jimmy) was born October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, the first of James Earl and Lillian Gordy Carter\u2019s four children \u2013 Jimmy, Gloria, Ruth, and Billy. James had a general store and farmland; Lillian worked as a nurse, first at Wise Sanitarium; she gave birth to Jimmy there, so yes, he\u2019s our first president to be born in a hospital. The house they brought him home to was at the end of a dirt road; it had no electricity or running water. Plains was a small town in the 1920s with a population of 479 farmers and a few store keepers. It hasn\u2019t changed much, the 2020 population was 573; 54% black and 42% white; the rural southern culture still revolves around farming, church, and school, although tourism is a major addition now; the National Park Service maintains the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site. \u201cBorn and raised\u201d in Plains, both Jimmy, and former First Lady Rosalynn, will both be buried there, but let\u2019s talk about what happened in between, and after, too.<\/p>\n

When Jimmy was very young, his Dad gave him an acre to farm; he was industrious with that \u2013 yes, he grew and sold peanuts. He played a little basketball in school, but there wasn\u2019t much entertainment in town; he did a lot of reading. Uncle Tom Gordy, his mother\u2019s brother, was in the Navy, and often sent the family postcards from around the globe; Jimmy began to think about the Navy too, and the world beyond Plains. Before he entered high school he wrote the US Naval Academy asking for a catalogue. He graduated Plains High School in 1941; the story goes he and other senior boys skipped school on April Fool\u2019s Day that year and were given zeroes for their prank. So Jimmy wound up as salutatorian rather than valedictorian in that class of twenty-six. And the only one who went on to college.<\/p>\n

The Navy, The Marriage, The Children<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>World War II was going on, and there was stiff competition for admission to the Naval Academy; Jimmy studied at Georgia Tech before being admitted to Annapolis in 1943. He graduated in the top ten percent of his class in August 1946, just after he and Rosalynn Smith got married that July; he was 22, she was 19 and had just graduated from Georgia Southwest College. Jimmy first saw Rosalynn when she was a day old; in fact his mother Lillian delivered her. The Carter and Smith families were friends; one of Rosalynn\u2019s sisters was named after Lillian; one of Jimmy\u2019s sisters became Rosalynn\u2019s best friend. That\u2019s the way it is in a small, close-knit community, though the two didn\u2019t have their first date until 1945. Their marriage lasted 77 years, until Rosalynn\u2019s death in 2023. Jimmy\u2019s comment on the longevity of their partnership: \u201cthe secret is to marry the right person.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the excitement of a Navy career underway, the newlyweds left Plains in 1946, ready to see more of the world. And they did; son Jack was born in Virginia in 1947. In 1948 Jimmy had officer training for submarine duty and served aboard USS Pomfret, which included a simulated war patrol to the western Pacific and Chinese coast; son Chip was born in Honolulu in 1950. Son Jeff was born in Connecticut in 1952; that was the year Jimmy joined the Navy\u2019s fledgling nuclear submarine program, led then by Hyman Rickover, whose high standards for both men and machines inspired Jimmy.<\/p>\n

In March 1953, Jimmy was selected to be an engineering officer for a submarine that was about to begin construction, the USS Sea Wolf. To prepare for the new assignment, he took classes in reactor technology and nuclear physics at Union College in Schenectady, New York; Jimmy and Rosalynnn and the boys lived in military housing nearby.<\/p>\n

And then, on July 22, 1953, just two months before construction of Seawolf began, Jimmy\u2019s father, at the age of 58, died of pancreatic cancer. The best-laid plans? Sometimes they change. Jimmy\u2019s mother Lillian couldn\u2019t manage the farm, nor could his sisters Gloria and Ruth. Brother Billy was just 16. Rosalynn was happy with their Navy lifestyle; returning to Plains seemed to her a monumental step backwards. But Jimmy felt obligated. He was released from active duty in the Navy October 9; he and Rosalynn and the boys moved into public housing in Plains. After debt settlements Jimmy\u2019s inheritance was small; he and Rosalynn began to re-adjust their lives. He was 30, she was 27, and the boys were 6, 3, and 1.<\/p>\n

Peanuts, and Politics<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The transition was hard; that first-year harvest failed due to a terrible drought and net profits totaled $187. Jimmy opened several lines of credit to keep the farm going. He studied agriculture and Rosalynnn learned accounting. In addition to growing peanuts, the Carter farm included a warehouse where Jimmy\u2019s Dad had stored and resold seeds. Jimmy decided to expand the warehouse operation \u2013 offering custom peanut shelling and storage; supplying bulk fertilizers and lime; grinding and mixing corn; storing ginned cotton. He even added fire and casualty insurance to the services provided by his agri-business. And the business thrived. By 1959 Jimmy began to be involved in the local community by serving on boards for civic entities. He became a deacon at the Plains Baptist Church. In 1962, he ran for state Senate; during two terms there he attacked wasteful government practices and helped repeal laws designed to discourage blacks from voting. And in his Baptist Church, when members voted to exclude blacks from worship there, Jimmy and Rosalyn voted to integrate.<\/p>\n

Somewhere between \u201cYes, I cut down the cherry tree,\u201d and \u201cNo, I did not erase the tapes,\u201d is there a \u201cGeorge Washington Approved\u201d lie? I don\u2019t know, but I know for certain if you\u2019re one facet of a government made up of hundreds of legislators and millions of voters, you must work with people. And idealist Jimmy, with all his smarts, and good intentions, and sense of right, was a \u201cdo-it-yourselfer.\u201d He was hard hit when he lost his 1966 bid for governor of Georgia to segregationist Lester Maddox; he campaigned honestly as conservative, moderate, and liberal, which he was. But he lived in a state where many folks still considered \u201cDixie\u201d their national anthem. So in 1970 he changed tactics; he continued to seek the black vote, but he also conferred with George Wallace; his appeal to racism was blatant. And he won. Then, in his inaugural speech as the new governor of Georgia he said what he really had in mind, declaring \u201cthe time of racial discrimination is over,\u201d and shocking the crowd.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>And then<\/em> he didn\u2019t engage with his fellow politicians, which made him unpopular with the legislature. That\u2019s the way he did things in his four years as governor of Georgia; that\u2019s the way he wound up doing things in his four years as President of the United States. Being \u201cunknown nationally\u201d worked in Jimmy\u2019s favor in 1976. The grudge against Nixon-Ford was still in voter\u2019s minds and they wanted a change. The \u201cJimmy Who?\u201d choice tantalized — Georgia peanut dust was way more appealing than Washington dirt. Jimmy made it in by a hair. But even a hair opens the door, right?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Jimmy and Rosalynn started a new tradition January 20, 1977, Inauguration Day. After the swearing in on both a family Bible and a Bible used by George Washington, they walked the parade route along Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House, an endearing gesture. But Jimmy\u2019s independence didn\u2019t mix well with the \u201cWashington\u201d way of doing business. He avoided phone calls from members of Congress. He didn\u2019t return political favors. It didn\u2019t take long until the Democrats were on his back. Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill said it is \u201cinappropriate for a president to pursue what has traditionally been the role of Congress.\u201d In 1979, when the House voted against giving him a standby gas rationing plan, he delivered remarks saying he was embarrassed for the American government because \u201cHouse Members are unwilling to take responsibility for a serious threat to our nation.\u201d Republicans accused him of \u201cmaking comments not befitting the formality a president should have in public remarks.\u201d By 1980 voters were tired of listening. And Hollywood was waiting in the wings. The Carters moved back to Plains.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Before he left for Washington in 1977, Jimmy placed the family farm supply business into the protection of a blind trust, which allowed a law firm in Atlanta to manage the business during his years in the White House. When Jimmy and Rosalynn returned to Plains in 1981, they were informed that due to three years of drought and several changes in warehouse management, they were over $1 million in debt. Their solution? They sold the business and began writing books.<\/p>\n

Over the next 40 years they experienced the best of \u201cthe life they both wanted.\u201d They lived in snug familiarity where they grew up, in the only home they\u2019ve ever owned. There\u2019s a pond out \"\"<\/a>front that Jimmy dug for fly fishing, and a woodshop out back. And they traveled the world, making an impact unmatched by any. More than 65 countries have honored them, welcomed them, or benefited from their efforts. Just two perky kids from Plains, Georgia, who had a few ideas. That blip in the White House was short, but it empowered them with a special \u201cnotability\u201d that may have been worth it all.<\/p>\n

Post Script<\/strong><\/p>\n

Somehow I got this far without Rosalynn\u2019s early-life details, or any mention of daughter Amy, let me catch up. Eleanor Rosalynnn Smith (1927-2023) was born August 18, 1927 in Plains, Georgia, the eldest of the four children of Wilburn Edgar and Frances Murray Smith; her brothers were Jerry and Murray, her sister Lillian. Dad was an auto mechanic and farmer, Mom was a teacher and dressmaker. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have much money,\u201d Rosalynn said, \u201cbut neither did anyone else, so as far as we knew we were well off.\u201d Her father died of leukemia in 1940 when she was thirteen; Rosalynn assisted in the dressmaking business to meet the family\u2019s financial obligations. Rosalynn was valedictorian of her Plains High School class of 1944; she went to Georgia Southwest College and graduated in 1946, valedictorian again \u2013 then she and Jimmy married.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>After having three sons close together by 1952, on October 19, 1967 a daughter was born. The boys had voted on \u201chaving a sister\u201d and even picked out her name a year earlier — Amy Lynn Carter. Amy lived in Plains until the family moved to the Governor\u2019s Mansion in Georgia; she was nine when they moved to the White House. \u201cThe boys were so much older than Amy it was like she had four fathers,\u201d said Rosalynn. \u201cThey had to take turns spoiling her.\u201d Amy had a Siamese cat named Misty Malarky Ying Yang<\/em>. And her Daddy wrote her a story-tale book The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer,<\/em> which she illustrated, you can buy it on Amazon today.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Carter story can\u2019t end without mentioning \u201cMiss Lillian\u201d again. Though her husband and three of her children died at an early age of pancreatic cancer, she lived a busy life for 85 years. She made headline news in 1966, when at the age of 68 she joined the Peace Corps and worked at the Godrej Colony 30 miles from Mumbai, India as a nurse. She got as much attention as Amy during Jimmy\u2019s White House years, even appearing as herself in a Lucille Ball movie \u201cCalling the President.\u201d<\/p>\n

Would I invite the Carters to my party? Oh yes, I love that south Georgia drawl.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Linda Lou Burton posting from Little Rock, Arkansas \u2013James Earl Carter Jr, aka Jimmy Carter (b 1924) was the 39th President of the United States from 1977-1981. As this is written, he is the oldest living former president, and the longest-lived president in US history; reaching his 100th birthday October 1, 2024. He didn\u2019t win […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4031],"tags":[4105,2007],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18199"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18199"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26928,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18199\/revisions\/26928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}