President Biden schedules Jimmy Carter’s state funeral for Jan. 9, also a National Day of Mourning
Former President Jimmy Carter has died at the age of 100. The 39th president of the United States was a Georgia peanut farmer who sought to restore trust in government when he assumed the presidency in 1977 and then built a reputation for tireless work as a humanitarian. He earned a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
Carter died Sunday, coming up on two years after entering hospice care, at his home in Plains, Georgia.
At age 52, Carter was sworn in as president on Jan. 20, 1977, after defeating President Gerald R. Ford in the 1976 general election. Carter left office on Jan. 20, 1981, following his 1980 general election loss to Ronald Reagan. Here’s the latest:
Carter’s state funeral will be Jan. 9
President Joe Biden has scheduled a state funeral in Washington for former President Jimmy Carter on Jan. 9.
Biden also declared Jan. 9 as a National Day of Mourning across the U.S. Carter, the longest-lived former president, died Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia. He was 100.
Biden also ordered U.S. flags to fly at half-staff for 30 days from Sunday.
Guterres’ remembrance focuses on Carter’s contributions to peace
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Sunday praised Carter for his significant contributions to international peace through the Camp David Accords, the SALT II Treaty and the Panama Canal treaties.
“President Carter’s commitment to international peace and human rights also found full expression after he left the presidency,” Guterres said in a statement. “He played a key role in conflict mediation, election monitoring, the promotion of democracy, and disease prevention and eradication. These and other efforts earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 and helped advance the work of the United Nations.
“President Carter will be remembered for his solidarity with the vulnerable, his abiding grace, and his unrelenting faith in the common good and our common humanity,” Guterres said.
Reflections from King Charles III
King Charles III joined leaders from around the world in issuing their condolences and sharing their reflections on the former president.
“It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of former President Carter,” the king said in a public statement. “He was a committed public servant, and devoted his life to promoting peace and human rights. His dedication and humility served as an inspiration to many, and I remember with great fondness his visit to the United Kingdom in 1977.”
Biden remembers Carter for his decency
President Joe Biden broke from his family vacation in the U.S. Virgin Islands to remember Carter, recalling his predecessor as a role model and friend.
America and the world lost a “remarkable leader” with Carter’s death, Biden said, adding that he had spoken to several of the former president’s children and was working with them to formalize memorial arrangements in Washington. Speaking for roughly 10 minutes, Biden remembered Carter as a humanitarian and statesman, someone he couldn’t imagine walking past a person in need without trying to help them. He represented “the most fundamental human values we can never let slip away,” Biden said.
The president repeatedly praised Carter’s “simple decency” and his values, saying some will see him as a man of honesty and humility from a bygone era.
“I don’t believe it’s a bygone era. I see a man not only of our time, but for all times,” Biden said. “To know his core, you need to know he never stopped being a Sunday school teacher at that Baptist church in Plains, Georgia.”
Egyptian president notes historic Camp David Accords
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said on X that Carter’s significant role in achieving the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel “will remain etched in the annals of history.”
He went on to say Carter’s “humanitarian work exemplifies a lofty standard of love, peace, and brotherhood.” Carter will be remembered as “one of the world’s most prominent leaders in service to humanity,” el-Sissi said.
Biden to speak on Carter’s death
President Joe Biden will speak about Carter Sunday evening. The president will make his address from a hotel in St. Croix, from the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he is on a holiday vacation with his family.
Carter’s relationship with his wife Rosalynn spanned a near-lifetime
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter had one of the great love stories and political partnerships in U.S. presidential history.
The former president sometimes called his wife, who died Nov. 19. 2023, “Rosie,” which is a good way to remember how her name actually is pronounced. It is “ROSE-uh-lyn,” not, repeat NOT, “RAHZ-uh-lyn.”
They were married more than 77 years but their relationship went back even further. Jimmy’s mother, “Miss Lillian,” delivered Eleanor Rosalynn Smith at the Smith home in Plains on Aug. 18, 1927. The nurse brought her eldest child back a few days later to visit, meaning the longest-married presidential couple met as preschooler and newborn.
She became his trusted campaign aide and White House adviser, surprising Washington by sitting in on Cabinet meetings. Then they traveled the world together as co-founders of The Carter Center.
Most of the nation saw the former president for the last time at Rosalynn Carter’s funeral.
Grandson Jason Carter says Plains kept his grandparents humble
Jason Carter is now the chairman of The Carter Center’s board of governors. He said his grandparents “never changed who they were” even after reaching the White House and becoming global humanitarians.
He says their four years in Washington were just one period of putting their values into action and that the center his grandparents founded in Atlanta is a lasting “extension of their belief in human rights as a fundamental global force.”
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter traveled the world advocating for democracy and fighting disease, but Jason Carter said they weren’t motivated by pity, or arrogance that a former American president had all the answers — they ventured to remote places because they could “recognize these people.” They too were from “a 600-person village” and understood that even the poorest people “have the power ... the ability ... the knowledge and the expertise to change their own community.”
President Biden mourns his predecessor
As reaction poured in from around the world, President Joe Biden mourned Carter’s death, saying the world lost an “extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian” and he lost a dear friend. Biden cited Carter’s compassion and moral clarity, his work to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless and advocacy for the disadvantaged as an example for others.
Biden said he is ordering a state funeral for Carter in Washington.
Pelosi says Carter’s life ‘was saintly’ in devotion to peace
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is remembering Carter as a man steeped “in devotion to public service and peace.”
The California Democrat said in a statement Sunday that Carter was committed to “honoring the spark of divinity within every person,” something she said manifested in “teaching Sunday school in his beloved Marantha Baptist Church, brokering the landmark Camp David Accords to pave the way to peace or building homes with Habitat for Humanity.”
Pelosi also said Carter led “perhaps the most impactful post-presidency in history.”
Historical praise from the United Kingdom
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer noted in a post on X the special contribution Carter made by brokering the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt and through his work with the Carter Center.
“Motivated by his strong faith and values, President Carter redefined the post-presidency with a remarkable commitment to social justice and human rights at home and abroad,” Starmer said.
Commemoration in New York City
To commemorate Carter’s death, officials with the Empire State Building said in a post on social media that the iconic New York City landmark would be lit in red, white and blue on Sunday night, “to honor the life and legacy” of the late former president.
The Obamas recall Carter’s Sunday services
In a statement issued Sunday, former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama said Carter’s beloved Maranatha Baptist Church “will be a little quieter on Sunday,s” but added that the late former president “will never be far away -- buried alongside Rosalynn next to a willow tree down the road, his memory calling all of us to heed our better angels.”
Noting the “hundreds of tourists from around the world crammed into the pews” to see the former president teach Sunday school, as he did “for most of his adult life,” the Obamas listed Carter’s accomplishments as president. But they made special note of the Sunday school lessons, saying they were catalysts for people making a pilgrimage to the church. “Many people in that church on Sunday morning were there, at least in part, because of something more fundamental: President Carter’s decency.”
A somber announcement
The longest-lived American president died Sunday, more than a year after entering hospice care, at his home in the small town of Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died at 96 in November 2023, spent most of their lives.
“Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia,” The Carter Center said in posting about his death on the social media platform X. It added in a statement that he died peacefully, surrounded by his family.
A Southerner and a man of faith
In his 1975 book “Why Not The Best,” Carter said of himself: “I am a Southerner and an American, I am a farmer, an engineer, a father and husband, a Christian, a politician and former governor, a planner, a businessman, a nuclear physicist, a naval officer, a canoeist, and among other things a lover of Bob Dylan’s songs and Dylan Thomas’s poetry.”
A moderate Democrat, Carter entered the 1976 presidential race as a little-known Georgia governor with a broad smile, outspoken Baptist mores and technocratic plans reflecting his education as an engineer.
After he left office and returned home to his tiny hometown of Plains in southwest Georgia, Carter regularly taught Sunday School lessons at Maranatha Baptist Church until his mobility declined. Those sessions drew visitors from around the world.
Former Vice President Gore remembers Carter for life “of purpose”
Former Vice President Al Gore praised Jimmy Carter for living “a life full of purpose, commitment and kindness” and for being a “lifelong role model for the entire environmental movement.”
Carter, who left the White House in 1981 after a landslide defeat to Ronald Reagan. concentrated on conflict resolution, defending democracy and fighting disease in the developing world. Gore, who lost the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush, remains a leading advocate for action to fight climate change. Both won Nobel Peace Prizes.
Gore said that “it is a testament to his unyielding determination to help build a more just and peaceful world” that Carter is often “remembered equally for the work he did as President as he is for his leadership over the 42 years after he left office.”
During Gore’s time in the White House, President Bill Clinton had an uneasy relationship with Carter. But Gore said he is “grateful” for “many years of friendship and collaboration” with Carter.
The Clintons react to Jimmy Carter’s death
Former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, remember Carter as a man who lived to serve others.
“Hillary and I mourn the passing of President Jimmy Carter and give thanks for his long, good life. Guided by his faith, President Carter lived to serve others — until the very end.”
The statement recalled Carter’s many achievements and priorities, including efforts “to protect our natural resources in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, make energy conservation a national priority, return the Panama Canal to Panama, and secure peace between Egypt and Israel at Camp David.”
After he left office, the Clinton statement said, Carter continued efforts in “supporting honest elections, advancing peace, combating disease, and promoting democracy; to his and Rosalynn’s devotion and hard work at Habitat for Humanity — he worked tirelessly for a better, fairer world,” the statement said.
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What to expect following the death of former President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter, the longest living president in American history, has died at the age of 100.
The news concludes a long life of public service, both inside and outside of the West Wing. His death follows the passing of his longtime wife Rosalynn Carter, who died on Nov. 19, 2023 at the age of 96.
“Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” former President Jimmy Carter said in a statement following Rosalynn's passing. “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.”
Carter, whose Secret Service code name was Deacon, defied illness and death for years. On Feb. 20, 2023, representatives of the former president announced that Carter had elected to enter hospice care to “spend his remaining time at home with his family.” Many Americans expected him to pass soon thereafter and were subsequently surprised by the length of his time in hospice.
His passing marks the beginning of an orchestrated process that will include a period of national mourning and remembrance.
There have been just four state funerals for former presidents since 1973. Richard Nixon, who died in 1994, requested that his family opt instead for a smaller ceremony at his presidential library
Much like British royalty, U.S. presidents have the maudlin task of planning their own funerals, while in office. The White House Historical Association notes coordination for the funeral begins early in each president's term.
"By helping plan their own funeral, presidents are able to incorporate personal touches that can elucidate their character and legacy on a national stage for the last time,” the association writes.
No formal announcements have been made regarding Carter’s funeral yet, but memorial services are expected to run for the next eight days, due to the holiday. He is expected to be taken to Atlanta via motorcade from his home in Plains, Ga., where he will briefly stop at the Georgia State Capitol before being taken to the Carter Center, where he will lie in repose for 36 hours.
From there, he will be transported to Washington, D.C. where he will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol for a day-and-a-half, which will be followed by a state funeral at Washington National Cathedral. Afterwards, he will return to Plains and buried in a little hill near a pond on his family land.
"Plains is special to us. I could be buried in Arlington Cemetery or wherever I want, but my wife was born here and I was born here," he told C-SPAN in December 2006. "Plains is where our hearts have always been."
Here’s what else we’re likely to see.
It’s federal law that flags on all federal buildings, grounds, and naval vessels be lowered to half-staff for 30 days, once a president passes away. (Vice-presidents and Chief Justices receive a 10-day half-staff honor.)
Sitting presidents will typically make an address when one of their predecessors passes on, generally declaring a National Day of Mourning on the day of the funeral. That means the federal government will shut down for a day and both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq markets will not trade.
Late Sunday, President Biden declared that would take place on Thursday, Jan. 9.
The last National Day of Mourning was held on Dec. 5, 2018 to honor the memory of former President George H.W. Bush.
It’s military tradition to honor the death of presidents and former presidents with a ceremonial gun salute. While most people think of the three rifle volley that typically accompanies a military funeral, this tradition is less known.
“On the day after the death of the president, a former president or president-elect—unless this day falls on a Sunday or holiday, in which case the honor will rendered the following day—the commanders of Army installations with the necessary personnel and material traditionally order that one gun be fired every half hour, beginning at reveille and ending at retreat,” noted the Air Force upon the death of Gerald Ford.
Generally, former presidents are buried five days after they pass away, though with the New Year's Day holiday, Carter's will likely take a bit longer. This allows for a period of remembrance and is part of the planning process presidents go through when they’re in office (though the families can make adjustments, should they choose).
Presidents have a say in everything from whether (and where) they lie in state at the Capitol to the route of the motorcade and the ceremonial elements of the event. That can be a bit of a hurdle for presidents who are unassuming, like Carter. The last one who had to be convinced to include some of the formalities was Gerald Ford.
“The folks that handle protocol for the country worked with him to help him understand that the service was for the nation as well as for his family, and he agreed reluctantly to certain elements,” the White House quotes Rev. Robert Certain as saying about Ford. (Certain was minister of the Episcopal Church where President and Mrs. Ford worshipped.)
Presidential funerals are among the few times Americans are likely to see all living former presidents side by side, as political differences are momentarily set aside to honor their colleague. Memorial services are usually held at the Washington National Cathedral. (It is unknown whether Donald Trump will attend or be invited to the funeral, however, given the strong philosophical differences Carter had with him.)
Following that, the former president’s body is taken to its final resting place, which in Carter’s case is still unknown. (Presidential libraries and hometowns are frequent choices.)
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
President Biden schedules Jimmy Carter's state funeral in Washington for Jan. 9, also a National Day of Mourning in US
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Biden schedules Jimmy Carter's state funeral in Washington for Jan. 9, also a National Day of Mourning in US.
Jimmy Carter, the farmer, president and Nobel peace crusader, dies at age 100
Jimmy Carter, the Georgia peanut farmer who became a U.S. president and a Nobel Prize-winning activist for peace and human rights, has died. He was 100.
Carter's post-presidency had been widely seen as more successful than his time in the White House, and he called it "more gratifying." even into his 90s, crusading for human rights, writing books, building homes for the needy with his own hands, teaching Sunday school, and traveling the world in the pursuit of peace.
Carter graduated from the United States Naval Academy, participated in the Navy's fledgling nuclear-powered submarine program, and served two terms as a Georgia state senator and one as governor before he was elected to the White House.
He became the nation's 39th president in 1977, defeating President Gerald Ford in the election more than two years after the Watergate scandal drove Richard Nixon from the Oval Office.
Carter had been on hospice care for more than a year.
His family announced in February 2023 that he had entered end-of-life care in his home after a series of hospital visits. His wife, Rosalynn, who had been diagnosed with dementia in early 2023, briefly entered hospice herself at age 96 before dying on Nov. 19, 2023.
Carter turned 100 in October, bringing a new flood of tributes and accolades. His grandson Jason Carter said it was gratifying for Jimmy Carter to see a reassessment of his presidency and legacy.
After losing his reelection bid in 1980, he remained active in public issues, including speaking at age 95 in support of Joe Biden at the virtual Democratic National Convention in August 2020. Some commentators viewed him as the nation's "most successful ex-president."
He wrote more than 40 books, including "Faith," which he released when he was in his mid-90s. Days after his 93rd birthday, he offered to go to North Korea amid a nuclear crisis in an attempt to establish a permanent peace between Pyongyang and Washington. And at age 96, he denounced Republican efforts to restrict voter access in his home state.
Carter lived longer than any other U.S. president, surpassing the late George H.W. Bush, who died in November 2018 at age 94. When Carter reached that milestone in March 2019, Carter Center spokeswoman Deanna Congileo said he was still active.
"Both President and Mrs. Carter are determined to use their influence for as long as they can to make the world a better place," Congileo said at the time. "Their tireless resolve and heart have helped to improve life for millions of the world's poorest people."
U.S. stock markets have historically closed for a day of mourning to honor the death of a president.
James Earl Carter Jr. was born Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia — the first U.S. president born in a hospital. His father ran a general store and invested in farmland. His mother, known as "Miss Lillian," was a nurse.
Carter attended the U.S. Naval Academy. During one of his visits home from Annapolis, his younger sister Ruth set up a date with their neighbor and lifelong friend. Upon graduation in 1946 from the academy, he married that young woman, Eleanor Rosalynn Smith, when she was 18. (On July 7, 2023, the Carters celebrated their 77th wedding anniversary, marking a record-long marriage for a first couple.)
In the Navy, he served on submarines in the Atlantic and Pacific fleets and attained the rank of lieutenant. He joined then-Capt. Hyman Rickover's nuclear submarine development program. He did graduate work at Union College in reactor technology and nuclear physics and became senior officer of the pre-commissioning crew of the second nuclear submarine, the Seawolf.
After his father died in 1953, Carter resigned from the Navy and returned to Georgia, taking over the family farms and becoming active in local politics. He served in the Navy Reserve until 1961.
Elected governor in 1971, he was considered one of the leaders of the "New South" — a progressive who condemned racial segregation and inequality.
During his presidential campaign, he ran as an outsider, hoping to capitalize on the anti-Washington sentiment in the post-Vietnam/Watergate era.
"My name is Jimmy Carter, and I'm running for president," a beaming Carter said in the opening of his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in July 1976.
He offered to create jobs in a nasty economy with a 7.9% unemployment rate, and to set a squeaky-clean example as a born-again Christian from outside the Beltway, unblemished by Washington's scandals.
On the eve of the election, however, he gave an interview to Playboy magazine in which he made this shocking confession: "I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times." Still, the man with the huge smile and genteel Georgia drawl handily won the Electoral College by 297-240 but received only 50.1% of the popular vote to Ford's 48%.
Once in office, Carter empowered his running mate, Walter Mondale, to transform the vice presidency into a policy-driving office.
On the domestic front, in addition to stagflation and recession, Carter had to deal with the Love Canal ecological disaster in Niagara Falls, New York, which led to the creation of the environmental Superfund. He also ended federal price regulations for airlines, trucking and railroads; signed the bailout of Chrysler in 1979; and elevated the Department of Education into a separate Cabinet-level agency.
One of his biggest domestic problems was the festering energy crisis, which stemmed from the Arab oil embargo that began during the 1973 Middle East war. He termed the crisis "the moral equivalent of war." In symbolic gestures, he wore a Mister Rogers-styled cardigan, turned down the White House heat, installed solar heating panels in the executive mansion, created the Department of Energy and pressed for tax incentives for installation of home insulation.
In international affairs, he campaigned for human rights, successfully concluded the Camp David peace accords between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, negotiated the return to Panama of the Canal Zone, established full diplomatic relations with communist China and reached an agreement on the SALT II nuclear arms limitation treaty with Moscow.
Then came the fateful end of the year 1979: The disastrous 444-day Iranian hostage standoff began in November, and the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in December, resulting in Carter's call for a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
The seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by radical student followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on Nov. 4, 1979, and the subsequent siege made the Carter administration seem impotent. Even the first lady recalled during a CNBC interview in 2014 that she urged her husband to "do something, anything!"
Five months into the crisis, Carter ordered a military mission, Operation Eagle Claw, to rescue the American hostages. The mission ended in humiliation: In the process of aborting the plan because of operational difficulties, a U.S. helicopter crashed into a transport plane at the desert staging area, killing eight servicemen.
Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who advocated diplomacy over force to resolve the hostage crisis, resigned. "I know this is a matter of principle with you, and I respect the reasons you have expressed to me," Carter said in a handwritten note to Vance.
The crisis finally ended with the release of 52 Americans on Jan. 20, 1981, the day the man who ended Carter's single-term presidency took the oath of office — Ronald Reagan. Before the 1980 election between Carter, Reagan and independent John Anderson, Sen. Ted Kennedy waged an unsuccessful challenge to the president for the Democratic nomination.
In a 2014 interview with CNBC, Carter said he probably would have been easily reelected had he rescued the hostages.
"It would have shown that I was strong and resolute and manly," he said. "I could have wiped Iran off the map with the weapons that we had. But in the process a lot of innocent people would have been killed, probably including the hostages. And so I stood up against all that advice, and then eventually all my prayers were answered and all the hostages came home safe and free."
Summing up the Carter presidency, former aide Stuart Eizenstat wrote in a 2015 op-ed in The New York Times that the nation's 39th president had numerous accomplishments.
"It is enormously frustrating for those of us who worked closely with him in the White House to witness his presidency caricatured as a failure, and to see how he has been marginalized, even by his fellow Democrats," Eizenstat wrote. "His defining characteristic was confronting intractable problems regardless of their political cost."
Carter remained active after he left Washington at age 56. He and Rosalynn volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, building affordable housing for the needy, and he established the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and The Carter Center in Atlanta. Founded in 1982, the center has sent observers to monitor elections in more than three dozen countries. The center has also led health efforts, including the push to eradicate the tropical parasitic Guinea worm disease. The center's motto is "Waging peace. Fighting disease. Building hope."
"I still hope to outlive the last Guinea worm," Carter told CNN in May 2018. (He came close. The Carter Center reported there were only 13 human cases in 2023.)
Carter, who also taught at Emory University, traveled extensively to promote peace, human rights and economic progress. In one mission, President Bill Clinton secretly dispatched him to North Korea in 1994 to help mediate a nuclear dispute with dictator Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Un's grandfather. In 2002, Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize for what the awards committee called "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."
However, his actions were not always well-received. His efforts in his long campaign for peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors included the 2006 book "Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid," which was perceived as antisemitic and biased against Israel. In particular, one sentence provoked an outcry:
"It is imperative that the general Arab community and all significant Palestinian groups make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals of the Roadmap for Peace are accepted by Israel."
In an interview with NPR, Carter was asked about the passage.
"That was a terribly worded sentence which implied, obviously in a ridiculous way, that I approved terrorism and terrorist acts against Israeli citizens," he said. "The 'when' was obviously a crazy and stupid word. My publishers have been informed about that and have changed the sentence in all future editions of the book."
(It became: "It is imperative that the general Arab community and all significant Palestinian groups make it clear that they renounce all acts of violence against innocent civilians and will accept international laws, the Arab peace proposal of 2002, and the ultimate goals of the Roadmap for Peace.")
In the 2014 CNBC interview, Carter said the Camp David Accords and other peacemaking stood among his greatest achievements as president.
"I kept our country at peace, which has happened very rarely since the Second World War, and I tried to work for peace between other people who were not directly related to the United States, like between Egypt and Israel. I normalized diplomatic relations with China, and I implemented a very strong human rights commitment that brought about a change throughout Latin America, for instance, from totalitarian military dictatorships to democracies," he said. "So I would say the promotion of peace and human rights were the two things that I'm most proud."
Had he been elected to a second term, he told CNBC, "I could have implemented very firmly the peace agreement that I negotiated with Israel and its neighbors that was never fully implemented."
"I'd like to be remembered as a champion of peace and human rights. Those are the two things I've found as a kind of guide for my life. I've done the best I could with those, not always successful, of course," he told CNBC. "I would hope the American people would see that I tried to do what was best for our country every day I was in office."
Survivors include sons John "Jack," James "Chip," and Donnel "Jeff" and daughter Amy. Jack ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in Nevada in 2006. Jack's son Jason lost a bid for Georgia governor in 2014 to then-incumbent Republican Nathan Deal. Carter's brother Billy, whose antics stirred up unwanted attention during the Carter White House years, died in 1988.
On Aug. 12, 2015, the former president revealed that he had melanoma and that surgery on his liver confirmed that it had metastasized there and to his brain.
A week after his cancer diagnosis announcement, Carter held a remarkably frank news conference at the Carter Center to discuss his prognosis and the prospect of facing death. "I've had a wonderful life, I've had thousands of friends, and I've had an exciting and adventurous and gratifying existence," he told reporters.
Illustrating that peace of mind, the former president took this picture when he returned home from the news conference:
After four months of treatment, including targeted radiation and immunotherapy, Carter announced in early December 2015 that a subsequent brain scan showed no signs of the original cancer spots and no new ones. Then in March 2016, he announced he no longer needed regular cancer treatments.
Months later, in July, he addressed the Democratic National Convention by video, urging people to vote for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump.
And at an Atlanta Braves game in September 2015, the former first couple was caught on the "kiss cam."
In 2019, at age 94, Carter fell in his home and broke a hip when he was preparing to go turkey hunting. "President Carter said his main concern is that turkey season ends this week, and he has not reached his limit," the Carter Center said.
He underwent hip replacement surgery but had to cancel plans to resume teaching Sunday school six days after the accident.
Later that year, just before a planned week at an October 2019 Habitat for Humanity project in Tennessee, the 95-year-old Carter fell in his home while heading to church. Although he suffered a black eye and needed 14 stitches in his head, Carter appeared 400 miles away at a concert that night in Nashville to support the project. Wielding a power drill and other building tools, he soon joined the volunteer construction crews.
Then, two weeks later, he fell in his house and suffered a pelvic fracture. But in another two weeks, he was back at church, giving a lesson on the Book of Job and talking about facing death during his 2015 cancer treatment.
"I obviously prayed about it. I didn't ask God to let me live, but I just asked God to give me a proper attitude toward death. And I found that I was absolutely and completely at ease with death. It didn't really matter to me whether I died or lived," Carter told the congregation of 400 people at Maranatha Baptist Church on Nov. 3, 2019, according to the church's feed on Facebook. "I have since that time been absolutely confident that my Christian faith includes complete confidence in life after death."
During the Covid pandemic, the Carters decided not to travel to Biden's inauguration, but weeks later, they were fully vaccinated and were back in their usual seats in the front pew of Maranatha Baptist for Sunday services.
It's hard to live until you're 95 years old," Carter told People magazine days after reaching that milestone. "I think the best explanation for that is to marry the best spouse: Someone who will take care of you and engage and do things to challenge you and keep you alive and interested in life."
— Michele Luhn and Lynne Pate contributed to this report.
Former President Jimmy Carter dies at 100
Former President Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, who dedicated his life after he left office to brokering international peace, has died at age 100, his office confirmed Sunday.
Carter, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his human rights work around the world, had been in hospice care since February 2023 at his home in Plains, Georgia, where he lived with his wife of years, Rosalynn Carter. The former first lady, 96, diedonNov. 19, 2023.
Carter was the first U.S. president to reach his 100th birthday.
In October, for Carter’s 100th birthday, President Joe Biden recognized him in a direct-to-camera birthday message shared with CBS News, saying: “Mr. President, you’ve always been a moral force for our nation and the world. I recognized that as a young senator. That’s why I supported you so early. You’re a voice of courage, conviction, compassion, and most of all, a beloved friend of Jill and me and our family.”
Biden said he would order an official state funeral to be held in Washington and issued a proclamation later Sunday declaring Jan. 9 to be a national day of mourning. The U.S. Army Military District of Washington said Monday morning that the state funeral would be held on that same date.
A Georgia native and a Democrat, Carter was elected president in 1976, defeating the Republican incumbent, Gerald Ford, in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal. Carter served one term before he lost re-election in 1980 to Ronald Reagan, his bid hobbled by an inability to resolve the Iran hostage crisis, a standoff that lasted 444 days.
Carter, the oldest living former president after George H.W. Bush died in 2018 at 94, was the first American president to have been born in a hospital.
Only 56 years old when he left the Oval Office, Carter would spend the next four decades focusing on good works that made him an almost universally revered figure, sometimes called America’s greatest ex-president — a sharp contrast to his relatively low popularity when he exited the White House in January 1981.
For years, he and his wife could be found on construction sites hoisting beams and pounding nails to build homes for the disadvantaged with the nonprofit organization Habitat for Humanity.
Around the world, Carter was recognized after his presidency for his tireless work promoting peaceful resolutions to conflict and advancing democracy, human rights and social justice, primarily through the Carter Center, which he and the former first lady established at Emory University in Atlanta in 1982.
Working through the center, the Carters traveled to developing countries to monitor elections, help build democratic institutions, lobby for victims of human rights abuses and spearhead efforts to eradicate diseases.
In February 1986, Carter secured the release of the journalist Luis Mora and the labor leader José Altamirano from prison in Nicaragua. In 1994, he traveled to North Korea at the request of President Bill Clinton and soon announced the negotiation of a “treaty of understanding” with the then-leader of North Korea, Kim Il Sung.
Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, shared a statement on Carter’s death Sunday afternoon, commemorating Carter’s commitment to civil rights, environmental conservation and his efforts to broker peace internationally.
“Hillary and I mourn the passing of President Jimmy Carter and give thanks for his long, good life. Guided by his faith, President Carter lived to serve others — until the very end,” they wrote. “Hillary and I met President Carter in 1975 and were proud, early supporters of his Presidential campaign. I will always be proud to have presented the Medal of Freedom to him and Rosalynn in 1999, and to have worked with him in the years after he left the White House.”
Carter was also credited with having helped to persuade Egypt and Tunisia to ease violence in the Great Lakes region of Africa in 1996, and he helped negotiate the Nairobi Agreement to end the war between Sudan and Uganda in northern Uganda in 1999.
In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts” and his “outstanding commitment to human rights.”
The award was something of a mark of rehabilitation after a presidency that ended with one of the lowest public approval ratings on record, averaging just 45.5% over his single term in office, according to Gallup.
In 1978, Carter brokered the Camp David Accords, a historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. The deal, which capped 16 months of negotiations, led to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978.
Many historians also credit the Carter administration with having been at the forefront of events that led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Carter and his hard-line national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, used human rights to put Moscow on the ideological defensive, and their forceful support for Lech Wałęsa’s Solidarity movement in Poland helped fuel a revolutionary wave in Eastern Europe that eventually sparked the fall of communism.
But Carter was often characterized as an ineffectual micromanager whose efforts to rally the American people during a time of economic recession and energy shortages landed with a thud. He was mocked for wearing sweaters in the White House to encourage Americans to turn down their thermostats in the winter to conserve energy, and his declaration in a nationally televised address in July 1979 that the United States was suffering a “crisis of confidence” was widely panned, given that it came after 2½ years into his leadership.
It came to be known as Carter’s “malaise” speech, even though he never used the word. Reagan would present himself as the sunny alternative to Carter’s scolding demeanor to win the 1980 election in a landslide.
In addition, Carter’s decision to boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow in protest of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan was popular domestically, but it remains controversial among historians, with some characterizing it as a missed opportunity to open warmer relations with Moscow and others declaring that it led to a decade of intensified Soviet repression before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
The final year of Carter’s presidency was dogged by the Iran hostage crisis, which began Nov. 4, 1979, when Iranian students took more than 60 U.S. hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran after Carter had allowed the deposed shah of Iran to receive medical treatment in the United States on humanitarian grounds.
In April 1980, Carter sent an elite rescue team into the embassy compound, but a desert sandstorm crippled several of the military helicopters. One of them crashed into a transport plane on takeoff, killing eight U.S. service members and leading Carter to abort the mission.
The debacle prompted Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, to order the hostages scattered among numerous locations to prevent another rescue attempt, and it gave him more ammunition with which to denounce the United States as “the Great Satan.”
An official investigation into the rescue attempt found major deficiencies in planning, command and control, and it identified critical shortcomings in communication and coordination among the U.S. military branches, bolstering perceptions of Carter as a weak leader and leading to the passage of the Goldwater–Nichols Act, which ordered a top-to-bottom reorganization of the Defense Department in 1986.
Fifty-two of the hostages would remain captive for 444 days, each day ticked off by Walter Cronkite at the end of the “CBS Evening News,” until they were released on Jan. 20, 1981 — the day Reagan was inaugurated as president.
James Earl Carter Jr. was born Oct. 1, 1924, in the tiny Sumter County town of Plains in southwest Georgia, where he grew up on a peanut farm. His intellect was recognized early, and he was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy. He graduated in 1946, and the same year married Rosalynn Smith, a 19-year-old childhood friend who was a star student at Plains High School.
Carter became a submariner in the Navy, where he was spotted by Adm. Hyman Rickover, who is considered the father of the U.S. nuclear submarine program. Rickover selected Carter as an aide and assigned him to Schenectady, New York, where the family relocated while Carter studied reactor technology and nuclear physics at Union Graduate College. Eventually, Carter would become a senior officer of the USS Seawolf, the United States’ second nuclear submarine.
Speaking about Rickover in a 1984 interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Carter said, “There were a few times when I hated him, because he demanded more from me than I thought I could deliver.”
Carter appeared set for a stellar military career under Rickover’s tutelage, but in 1953, he left the Navy after his father died, returning to Georgia to run the family peanut business.
As the company grew, Carter became prominent in south Georgia politics, speaking out as a rare advocate of civil rights in church addresses and as chairman of the Sumter County School Board. He was elected as a Democrat to the state Senate in 1962 in a special election after he challenged his defeat in what an investigation revealed to have been a fraudulent vote.
Carter rose quickly, becoming a member of the Democratic Executive Committee and chairman of the Senate Education Committee in just his second two-year term.
After just four years in the Senate, Carter launched a campaign for governor, losing the Democratic primary but winning enough votes to force a runoff between the presumed front-runner and an outlandish segregationist chicken-restaurant owner, Lester Maddox. Maddox would win the runoff and the general election.
Carter tried again in 1970, this time compromising his civil rights record by declaring himself “basically a redneck” and complimenting the divisive Maddox — who was famous for having used an ax handle as a weapon to drive Black activists from his restaurant in 1964 — for being “steadfast” and “honorable” in his beliefs.
“Carter, believe it or not, ran a segregated race, one that he was connected with George Wallace of Alabama,” his main Democratic opponent, former Gov. Carl Sanders, said in a 2014 interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, adding that Carter “hoodwinked enough people to make them believe” that he would work to undermine integration.
“I can win this election without a single Black vote,” Carter told The Atlanta Constitution in July 1970.
Carter was forced into a runoff in the Democratic primary, which he easily won. And then he changed strategy to one he would use for the rest of his career — reaching out to Black voters and campaigning in Black churches and easily defeating a Republican news broadcaster in the general election. In his 2014 biography, “Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter,” the Dartmouth College religion historian Randall Balmer wrote that Carter regretted the 1970 campaign for the rest of his life.
Barred from running for re-election as governor in 1974 and seizing on the opening left by disarray in both major parties after the Watergate scandal, Carter leaped into the 1976 presidential campaign, starting out near the bottom of the polls in a Democratic field of more than a dozen candidates. He was generally derided as “Jimmy who?”
Relying on his reputation as a reformer with deep ties in the Baptist church and promising voters “I will never lie to you” — and capitalizing on political cartoonists’ depictions of him as a peanut with a big smile by adopting them in his campaign — Carter entered a record number of state primaries and caucuses. He campaigned tirelessly in Black and other minority communities and slowly chipped away at the opposition.
Turning back a liberal “Anybody But Carter” movement led by California Gov. Jerry Brown and Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho, by June he had wrapped up the nomination. Helped by a colossal blunder by the Republican vice presidential nominee, Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas — who dismissed the U.S.-led victories in both World War I and World War II as “Democrat wars” — Carter defeated President Ford with 50.1% of the vote.
Carter took pains to project a modest image to a scandal-weary nation. He walked down Pennsylvania Avenue during his inaugural parade. He carried his own bags on Air Force One. And there were his constant messages to Americans that he couldn’t address the nation’s problems alone, often in self-effacing, sweater-wearing public appearances.
Throughout his busy post-presidency, Carter wrote — a lot. He wrote more than two dozen books, some with his wife. And as always, his faith and his humble roots remained his guides. He continued to teach Sunday school at his hometown church, Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, until the pandemic hit in early 2020, forcing him and his wife to forgo most public engagements.
Carter still participated in church activities by video amid the pandemic.
“When I got through being governor, I went back to Plains,” he told the congregation in August 2015. “When I got through being president, I went back to Plains, and now no matter where we are in the world, you look forward to getting back home to Plains.”
Carter was the only living president aside from Donald Trump not to attend Biden’s inauguration in 2021, because of the pandemic. It was the first inauguration Carter had missed as a former president.
Trump sent the Carter family his condolences Sunday afternoon, saying he owed “a debt of gratitude” to Carter for his work.
“The challenges Jimmy faced as President came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude,” Trump wrote. “Melania and I are thinking warmly of the Carter Family and their loved ones during this difficult time. We urge everyone to keep them in their hearts and prayers.”
Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited the Carters in Georgia in April 2021. “We sat and talked about the old days,” Biden said afterward.
Biden paid tribute to Carter on Sunday night, addressing the nation from St. Croix, where he is on vacation.
Biden praised Carter, whom he called “a dear friend,” for his “decency” and character.
“Jimmy Carter lived a life measured not by words, but by his deeds,” Biden said.
He remembered Carter’s work in and out of the Oval Office, saying his “compassion and moral clarity lifted people up and changed lives all over the globe.”
“Just look at his life, his life’s work. He worked to eradicate disease, not just at home, but around the world. He forged peace, advanced civil rights, human rights, promoted free and fair elections around the world. He built housing and homes for the homeless,” Biden said.
Biden said in a statement earlier Sunday that he and the first lady mourned Carter’s passing.
“Today, America and the world lost an extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian. Over six decades, we had the honor of calling Jimmy Carter a dear friend. But, what’s extraordinary about Jimmy Carter, though, is that millions of people throughout America and the world who never met him thought of him as a dear friend as well,” Joe and Jill Biden wrote.
Former President Barack Obama commemorated Carter on X, saying he “taught all of us what it means to live a life of grace, dignity, justice, and service.” In a longer statement, Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama said Carter had embodied those values.
“Whenever I had a chance to spend time with President Carter, it was clear that he didn’t just profess these values. He embodied them. And in doing so, he taught all of us what it means to live a life of grace, dignity, justice, and service. In his Nobel acceptance speech, President Carter said, ‘God gives us the capacity for choice. We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace.’ He made that choice again and again over the course of his 100 years, and the world is better for it,” the Obamas said.
Former President George W. Bush similarly sent his and former first lady Laura Bush’s “heartfelt” condolences to the Carter family.
“James Earl Carter, Jr., was a man of deeply held convictions. He was loyal to his family, his community, and his country. President Carter dignified the office. And his efforts to leave behind a better world didn’t end with the presidency. His work with Habitat for Humanity and the Carter Center set an example of service that will inspire Americans for generations,” Bush wrote.
“We join our fellow citizens in giving thanks for Jimmy Carter and in prayer for his family,” he added.
Habitat for Humanity issued its own statement mourning the death of its longtime ally.
“President and Mrs. Carter began volunteering with Habitat for Humanity near their home in southwest Georgia more than 40 years ago, and soon brought worldwide attention to the need for decent and affordable housing. We are grateful for the incredible impact the Carters have had on Habitat and on the families who have benefited from their shining example. The Carters put Habitat for Humanity on the map, and their legacy lives on in every family we serve around the world,” said Habitat for Humanity’s CEO, Jonathan Reckford.
When Carter reached his 100th birthday in October, his grandson Jason Carter told The Journal-Constitution that he had said he wanted to hang on until November to cast his vote for the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris added her voice to the choir of mourners, saying in a statement Sunday evening that "the world is a better place because of President Carter."
"Jimmy Carter’s life is a testament to the power of service — as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy, the 76th Governor of Georgia, and the 39th President of the United States. He reminded our nation and the world that there is strength in decency and compassion," she said.
Carter was diagnosed with melanoma in 2015, a virulent form of skin cancer that had spread to his liver and his brain. He underwent experimental treatment with the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab, also known as Keytruda, and a few months later he announced that doctors had ended his treatments after having found no signs of tumors.
Carter spent much of the second half of 2019, right before the pandemic hit, in the hospital for brain surgery, infections and two falls that resulted in a broken hip and pelvis.
He was back teaching Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church two weeks after he fractured his pelvis. He told the congregation at the time that since doctors told him in 2015 that cancer had spread to his brain, he had been “absolutely and completely at ease with death.”
