Jimmy
Carter reached his 100th birthday Tuesday, the first time an American president
has lived a full century and the latest milestone in a life that took the son
of a Depression-era farmer to the White House and across the world as a Nobel
Peace Prize-winning humanitarian and advocate for democracy.
Living
the last 19 months in home hospice care in Plains, the Georgia Democrat and
39th president has continued to defy expectations, just as he did through a
remarkable rise from his family peanut farming and warehouse business to the
world stage. He served one presidential term from 1977 to 1981 and then worked
more than four decades leading The Carter Center, which he and his wife
Rosalynn co-founded in 1982 to “wage peace, fight disease, and build hope.”
“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,”
Jason Carter, the former president’s grandson and chair of The Carter Center
governing board, said in an interview.
“These
last few months, 19 months, now that he’s been in hospice, it’s been a chance
for our family to reflect,” he continued, “and then for the rest of the country
and the world to really reflect on him. That’s been a really gratifying time.”
James
Earl Carter Jr. was born Oct. 1, 1924 in Plains, where he has lived more than
80 of his 100 years. He is expected to mark his birthday in the same one-story
home he and Rosalynn built in the early 1960s — before his first election to
the Georgia state Senate. The former first lady, who was also born in Plains,
died last November at 96.
President
Joe Biden, who was the first sitting senator to endorse Carter’s 1976 campaign,
praised his longtime friend for an “unwavering belief in the power of human
goodness.”
“You’ve
always been a moral force for our nation and the world (and) a beloved friend
to Jill and me and our family,” the 81-year-old president tells Carter in a
tribute video filmed in front of Carter’s presidential portrait at the White
House.
Outside
the North Portico, the Bidens are placing a display of large lettering
declaring “Happy Birthday President Carter” and the number 100. Carter has
asked Biden to eulogize him at his state funeral when the time comes.
The
Carter Center on Sept. 17 hosted a musical gala in Atlanta to celebrate the
former president with a range of genres and artists, including some who
campaigned with him in 1976. The event raised more than $1.2 million for the
center’s programs and will be broadcast Tuesday evening on Georgia Public
Broadcasting.
In
St. Paul, Minnesota, Habitat for Humanity volunteers are honoring Carter with a
five-day effort to build 30 houses. The Carters became top ambassadors for the
international organization after leaving the White House and hosted annual
building projects into their 90s. Carter survived a cancer diagnosis and
treatment in his early 90s, then several falls and a hip replacement in his
mid-90s before announcing at 98 that he would enter hospice care.
Townspeople
in Plains planned another concert Tuesday evening.
The
last time Jimmy Carter was seen publicly was nearly a year ago, using a
reclining wheelchair to attend his wife’s two funeral services. Visibly
diminished and silent, he was joined on the front row of Glenn Memorial United
Methodist Church in Atlanta by the couple’s four children, every living former
first lady, Biden and his wife Jill and former President Bill Clinton. A day
later, Carter joined his extended family and parishioners at Maranatha Baptist
Church in Plains, where the former president taught Sunday School for decades.
Jason
Carter said the 100th birthday celebrations were not something the family
expected to see once his grandmother died. The former president’s hospital bed
had been set up in the same room so he could see his wife of 77 years and talk
to her in her final days and hours.
“We
frankly didn’t think he was going to go on much longer,” Jason Cater said. “But
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, just engaged, emotionally, with all of us.”
Jason
Carter said the centenarian president, born only four years after women were
granted the constitutional right to vote and four decades before Black women
won ballot access, is eager to cast his 2024 presidential ballot — for Vice
President Kamala Harris, the Democrat who would become the first woman, second
Black person and first person of south Asian descent to reach the Oval Office.
“He,
like a lot of us, was incredibly gratified by his friend Joe Biden’s courageous
choice to pass the torch,” the younger Carter said. “You know, my grandfather
and The Carter Center have observed more than 100 elections in 40 other
countries, right? So, he knows how rare it is for somebody who’s a sitting
president to give up power in any context.”
Jason
Carter continued, “When we started asking him about his 100th birthday, he said
he was excited to vote for Kamala Harris.”
Early
voting in Georgia begins Oct. 15, two weeks into Carter’s 101st year.