OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
11:00 AM – Tuesday, October 1, 2024
On Tuesday, former 39th President Jimmy Carter turned 100 years old. This is the first time an American president has ever lived a full century.
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It is also the most recent achievement in a life that saw the son of a farmer during the Great Depression rise to the White House and later become a global humanitarian and philanthropist.
The Georgia Democrat and 39th president has spent the last 19 months receiving home hospice care in Plains, Georgia.
After serving one term as president from 1977 to 1981, he went on to run The Carter Center for more than 40 years. He and his late wife, Rosalynn, co-founded the organization back in 1982.
“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,” said Jason Carter, the former president’s grandson and chair of The Carter Center governing board. “These last few months, 19 months, now that he’s been in hospice, it’s been a chance for our family to reflect,” he added, “and then for the rest of the country and the world to really reflect on him. That’s been a really gratifying time.”
Having spent more than 80 of his 100 years in Plains, James Earl Carter Jr. was born there on October 1st, 1924. Before winning his first election to the Georgia state Senate, he and Rosalynn built a one-story home together, where he is planning on celebrating his birthday. The former first lady and wife of Jimmy passed away in November 2023 at the age of 96.
“You’ve always been a moral force for our nation and the world (and) a beloved friend to Jill and me and our family,” said 81-year-old President Joe Biden in a tribute video.
On September 17th, the Carter Center in Atlanta held a musical extravaganza honoring the former president, which featured a variety of genres and performers, some of whom accompanied him during his 1976 campaign. The event raised almost $1.2 million for the center’s programs.
Meanwhile, volunteers from the group Habitat for Humanity are honoring Carter by working for five days to construct thirty houses in St. Paul, Minnesota. After departing the White House, the Carters rose to prominence as the organization’s global ambassadors, hosting yearly construction projects well into their 90s.
Carter announced at the age of 98 that he was going into hospice care after overcoming a hip replacement, multiple falls, a cancer diagnosis, and other treatment in his early 90s.
Jimmy Carter was last seen in public almost a year ago, when he attended his wife’s two funerals in a recliner wheelchair. He appeared to be in a weakened and silent state as the four children of the couple, every surviving previous first lady, Biden and his wife Jill, and former President Bill Clinton joined him in the front row of Atlanta’s Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church.
Grandson Jason Carter stated that after their grandmother passed away, the family did not anticipate witnessing the 100th birthday celebrations. Ever since Rosalynn died, the former president has mostly refrained from joining the public, if possible.
“It’s a faith journey for him, and he’s really given himself over to what he feels is God’s plan. He knows he’s not in charge. But in these last few months, especially, he has gotten a lot more engaged in world events, a lot more engaged in politics, a lot more engaged, emotionally, with all of us,” Jason continued.
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