Former US president Jimmy Carter dies
Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, has died peacefully at his home in Plains, Georgia, “surrounded by his family,” the Carter Center said in a statement Sunday.
Carter, 100, became the oldest living former president in US history in March 2019, surpassing George H.W. Bush. He was the first American president to reach triple digits.
Carter was a peanut farmer and US Navy lieutenant before going into politics, eventually serving one term as governor of Georgia and as president of the United States from 1977 to 1981.
Rosalynn Carter, the former president’s wife of more than 75 years, who was known for her mental health advocacy and humanitarian work, died in November 2023 at 96.
The Carters were the longest-married presidential couple in US history.
Former President Jimmy Carter is honored more widely for his humanitarian work around the globe after his presidency than for his White House tenure during a tumultuous time.
His son, Chip Carter, stated: “My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love. My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.”
His wife of 77 years, Rosalynn, had earlier passed away in November 2023, at the modest house. Carter and wife built the house together in 1961 after he took over his father’s peanut warehouse business and was only beginning to consider a political career.
Carter had in February 2023 announced he was ending medical intervention and moving to hospice care.
The former president vowed he wanted to cast a ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
After serving a single term in the White House, Jimmy Carter became one of the most durable figures in modern American politics. Evicted from the White House at age 56, he would hold the status of former president longer than anyone in U.S. history, and in 2019 he surpassed George H. W. Bush as the nation’s oldest living ex-president.
Carter remained remarkably active in charitable causes through a series of health challenges during his final years, including a bout with brain cancer in 2015. He was admitted to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta in November 2019 for a procedure to relieve pressure on his brain, a consequence of bleeding that followed a series of falls. A few months earlier, in May, he had undergone surgery after breaking his hip.
In the White House from 1977 to 1981, Carter negotiated the landmark Camp David peace accords between Israel and Egypt, transferred the Panama Canal to Panamanian ownership, dramatically expanded public lands in Alaska and established formal diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China.
But the 39th president governed at a time of soaring inflation and gasoline shortages, and his failure to secure the release of Americans held hostage by Iran helped cost him the second term he sought.
