Jimmy Carter dead at 100 years old

[VaBeach_Eagle]

 

Quote

Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States and a former peanut farmer whose vision of a "competent and compassionate" government propelled him into the White House, died on Sunday, the Carter Center confirmed. He was 100.

The news was first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Sunday, shortly before The Carter Center, the late president's non-profit organization, made an announcement on X.

"Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia," the organization's post read.

Carter's death follows the passing of his wife Rosalynn on Nov. 19, 2023. She died at the age of 96 with her family by her side at the Carter home in Plains, just days after she had been admitted to hospice care. 

The late former president himself had entered hospice care in February 2023. Carter survived for years after he had a "small mass" removed from his liver in early August 2015 and later that month announced he had liver cancer that had spread throughout his body. 

The Carter family had a history of cancer and the former president lost his father, brother, and two sisters to pancreatic cancer. His mother had breast cancer, which later spread to her pancreas.

Jason Carter, Carter's grandson, had announced in May that he believed the former president was "coming to the end" of his life's journey. But the former president hung on much longer.

The soft-spoken leader with a signature Georgia drawl saw his single term in the Oval Office clouded by an economic downturn at home and a hostage crisis abroad.

His post-presidency life was marked by a very visible dedication to service, but also a series of sometimes controversial moves as he continued to wade into foreign affairs, particularly as it related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Carter met with the leadership of terrorist group and Palestinian representative Hamas in 2009 and 2015. He reprimanded Israel for its operations against Hamas in 2014, saying there was "no justification in the world for what Israel is doing."

James Earl Carter Jr. was born in 1924 in Plains, a farming town. Carter’s father was a farmer, a background that helped instill in him a love of the land – and the working and lower class people who tilled it – that would follow him throughout his personal and professional life.

But Carter initially sought a path outside the dirt of Plains and, after attending the U.S. Naval Academy, he served as a submariner in the post-World War II navy, eventually attaining the rank of lieutenant.

Carter married Rosalynn Smith, a fellow native of Plains, in 1946, the same year he graduated from the Academy.

After Carter’s father died in 1953, Carter resigned his naval commission and returned to his and Rosalynn’s roots in Plains. Carter took the lead at the family farm while Rosalynn operated a farm supply company in their small Georgia town.

It wasn’t long, however, before Carter again left the farm fields behind, this time beginning a career in politics that would land him the nation’s highest office in just 14 years.

Carter won election to the Georgia Senate in 1962 and, following a failed gubernatorial bid in 1966, he became the state’s governor in 1971.

Carter grew into a national Democratic Party leader and won the 1976 presidential election against President Gerald Ford, riding a wave of popular discontent with former President Richard Nixon – and the pardon that Ford had extended to Nixon.

While in the White House, Carter established full diplomatic relations with China and led the negotiation of a nuclear limitation treaty with the Soviet Union. Domestically, he led several conservation efforts, showing the same love of nature as president as he did as a young farmer in Plains.

He has cited the Panama Canal treaties and the Camp David accords that brought peace between Egypt and Israel as among his greatest personal accomplishments.

"We focused on peace," he told The Washington Post in 2014. "We never shot a bullet or dropped a bomb on anyone."

But peace wasn’t always easily maintained, and a perceived lack of strength in dealing with bad actors likely contributed to his lopsided 1980 defeat by Ronald Reagan.

The final 14 months of his presidency were dominated by the Iran hostage crisis. Following the country’s revolution, the new government took 52 American hostages. Carter was never able to retrieve the detained Americans or negotiate for their release. In an obvious snub, Iran finally released the 52 after they had been held for 444 days — on the same day Carter left office.

And though Carter started the Department of Education and the Department of Energy, two government bureaucracies that have since become popular targets for Republicans, a nationwide energy crunch also served to hurt his tenure. Footage of gas lines and high gas prices are a seminal feature of nearly any late 1970s documentary or discussion.

The domestic and foreign issues led Sen. Ted Kennedy to take the rare step of challenging Carter for the Democratic presidential nomination. Though Carter survived that battle, though barely, he wasn’t as fortunate in November 1980, when Reagan won 44 states and the presidency.

Upon leaving the White House, Carter, who authored 28 books, was named a distinguished professor at Emory University in Atlanta and founded The Carter Center, a nonprofit organization focusing on national and international public policy. Carter told The Associated Press that he had the "best times" of his life after establishing the organization in 1982.

"This beautiful place on Earth that has set moral and ethical standards that exemplify what a superpower like America ought to be," Carter said of the center in October.

Recalling the manual labor of his youth in Plains, Carter was often seen volunteering and fundraising for Habitat for Humanity, helping to build homes for the needy.

Former president Jimmy Carter is pictured prior to the game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Cincinnati Bengals at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sept. 30, 2018, in Atlanta. (Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)

Carter also served as a member of The Elders, a group of independent global leaders no longer in politics  whose ranks at one time included South African President Nelson Mandela, Irish President Mary Robinson and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

In his spare time, Carter, a deeply religious man who served as a deacon in the Maranatha Baptist Church of Plains, enjoyed fishing, running and woodworking.

Carter is survived by his four children, his 12 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren.

 

[20dawk4life]

RIP

[Dave Moss]

Can't believe he gave away the canal

[VaBeach_Eagle]

2 minutes ago, Dave Moss said:

Can't believe he gave away the canal

I was 8 at the time, but I remember thinking (even at that young age), that we shouldn't have done that and my memory seems to be that it was discussed that way on the news back then, too. 

[NOTW]

R.I.P. 

He did a lot of great charity work, kept doing it into old age. Respect.

[Arthur Jackson]

Class act.

[Procus]

One of the worst presidents in the history of our country.  We're paying today for the damage that he did.

[Dave Moss]

2 minutes ago, Procus said:

One of the worst presidents in the history of our country.  We're paying today for the damage that he did.

Imagine getting charged to ship your goods through the middle of another country 

[Procus]

3 minutes ago, Dave Moss said:

Imagine getting charged to ship your goods through the middle of another country 

The one thing I miss about Carter is earning 18% in my checking account

[Dave Moss]

4 minutes ago, Procus said:

The one thing I miss about Carter is earning 18% in my checking account

So if you’re 80 now if my math is correct you were in your early 30s in 1977?

[Gannan]

I like new Trump. RIP President Carter 

[It Hurts]

Great human being who did so much after his presidency. RIP Jimmy

[paco]

RIP to a really, really good man.  We’d be in a much better place if more politicians had his character 

[DEagle7]

If you knew nothing else about the man, know that the dumbest poster in CVON doesn't like him. 

Rest in Peace Jimmy. You'll be missed. 

[Procus]

3 hours ago, DEagle7 said:

If you knew nothing else about the man, know that the dumbest poster in CVON doesn't like him. 

Rest in Peace Jimmy. You'll be missed. 

Not so - you like him.

[DEagle7]

29 minutes ago, Procus said:

Not so - you like him.

Good one Foal Goodman 

[Procus]

 

[vikas83]

RIP

[Tnt4philly]

The man was a true humanitarian. 

[mayanh8]

12 hours ago, Procus said:

The one thing I miss about Carter is earning 18% in my checking account

Yeah that whole $1.80 in interest earned you generated went a lot farther 40 years ago.

[DrPhilly]

RIP

[Dave Moss]

8 hours ago, Procus said:

 

The Shah of Iran was a corrupt POS who used secret police to murder his political opposition.  He was so unpopular that he had to leave the country like your buddy Abbas just left Syria.

[Arthur Jackson]

16 hours ago, Procus said:

One of the worst presidents in the history of our country.  We're paying today for the damage that he did.

Jimmy Carter invented peanut butter. What have you done?

[Procus]

2 hours ago, Dave Moss said:

The Shah of Iran was a corrupt POS who used secret police to murder his political opposition.  He was so unpopular that he had to leave the country like your buddy Abbas just left Syria.

Uh huh.  And who replaced him?  How's that going?

You have zero clue about that end of the world.

[DiPros]

RIP JC.

Peace deal between Israel and Egypt still stands today.  But of course, he was the worst President ever to some.  The man lived 100 years surely you could show a little respect for a fellow human being.