What to Know About Jimmy Carter’s National Funeral Service

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1924–2024

Jimmy Carter Today: 39th President’s Memorial Services Conclude with National Funeral and Internment

Former President Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29 at the age of 100, is being honored with a national funeral service in Washington D.C. on January 9. The funeral, held at Washington National Cathedral, concludes the nearly week-long plan of memorial services for Carter, which included state funeral services in Georgia followed by two days of his body lying in state at the U.S. Capitol.

President Joe Biden, who declared Thursday a National Day of Mourning, is delivering a eulogy at the funeral, along with Carter’s grandson Jason and other speakers. Among the notable attendees at the service are President-elect Donald Trump and former Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. After the funeral, Carter will be flown back to his home state for a private funeral and burial.


Who Was Jimmy Carter?

Jimmy Carter was the 39th president of the United States and served as the nation’s chief executive from 1977 to 1981, a time of serious problems at home and abroad. Carter’s perceived mishandling of these issues led to defeat in his bid for reelection. He later turned to diplomacy and advocacy, founding The Carter Center in 1982 with his late wife, Rosalynn. For these efforts, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2002. Carter wrote more than 30 books, most recently Faith: A Journey for All. The longest living president in American history, he died at age 100 in December 2024.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: James Earl Carter Jr.
BORN: October 1, 1924
DIED: December 29, 2024
BIRTH CITY: Plains, Georgia
SPOUSE: Rosalynn Carter (1946–2023)
CHILDREN: John, James, Donnel, and Amy
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Libra

Early Life: Family and Education

James Earl Carter Jr. was born on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia. His father, James Sr., went by Earl and was a hardworking peanut farmer who owned his own small plot of land as well as a warehouse and store. His mother, Bessie Lillian Gordy Carter, also went by her middle name. Lillian was a registered nurse who in the 1920s had crossed racial divides to counsel Black women on health care issues. Young Jimmy was the oldest of James and Lillian’s four children, including two daughters and a son. (His siblings are now deceased.)

When Carter was 4 years old, the family relocated to Archery, a town approximately two miles from Plains. It was a sparsely populated and deeply rural town, where mule-drawn wagons remained the dominant mode of transportation, and electricity and indoor plumbing were still uncommon. Carter was a studious boy who avoided trouble and began working at his father’s store at the age of 10. His favorite childhood pastime was sitting with his father in the evenings, listening to baseball games and politics on the battery-operated radio.

Both of Carter’s parents were deeply religious, something they passed down to their son. They belonged to Plains Baptist Church and insisted that Carter attend Sunday school, which his father occasionally taught. Carter attended the all-white Plains High School while the area’s majority Black population received educations at home or at church. Despite this pervasive segregation, two of Carter’s closest childhood friends were Black, as were two of the most influential adults in his life: his nanny, Annie Mae Hollis, and his father’s employee Jack Clark.

While the Great Depression hit most of the rural South very hard, the Carters managed to prosper during these years, and by the late 1930s, his father had over 200 workers employed on his farms. In 1941, Carter became the first person from his father’s side of the family to graduate from high school.

Carter studied engineering at Georgia Southwestern Junior College before joining the Naval ROTC program to continue his engineering studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He then applied to the highly competitive Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, which accepted him to begin studies in the summer of 1943. With his reflective, introverted personality and small stature—Carter stood only 5 feet 9 inches tall—he didn’t fit in well among his fellow midshipmen.

Nevertheless, Carter continued to excel at academics, graduating in the top 10 percent of his class in 1946. While on leave in the summers, Carter had reconnected with a girl named Rosalynn Smith whom he had known since childhood. They married in July 1946.

Navy Man Turned Peanut Farmer

The Navy assigned Carter to work on submarines, and in the early years of their marriage, the Carters—like many a military family—moved frequently. After a training program in Norfolk, Virginia, they moved out to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where Carter was an electronics officer on the USS Pomfret. Subsequent postings took the family to Groton, Connecticut; San Diego; and Washington.

In 1952, Carter was assigned to work with Admiral Hyman Rickover developing a nuclear submarine program in Schenectady, New York. The brilliant and notoriously demanding admiral made a profound impression on Carter. “I think, second to my own father, Rickover had more effect on my life than any other man,” he later said. Two interview questions that Rickover asked him inspired the name for the future president’s first book, Why Not the Best? (1975).

In July 1953, Carter’s father passed away from pancreatic cancer, and in the aftermath of his death, the farm and family business fell into disarray. Although Rosalynn initially objected, Carter moved his family back to rural Georgia so he could care for his mother and take over the family’s affairs. In Georgia, Carter resuscitated the family farm and became active in community politics, winning a seat on the Sumter County Board of Education in 1955 and eventually becoming its chairman.

Accomplishments as a Georgia Politician

The 1950s were a period of great change in the American South. In the landmark 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, the United States Supreme Court unanimously ordered the desegregation of public schools, and in the aftermath of that decision, civil rights protestors vociferously demanded an end to all forms of racial discrimination. However, politics in the rural South still largely reflected the reactionary racial outlook of the “Old South.” Carter was the only white man in Plains to refuse to join a segregationist group called the White Citizens’ Council, and shortly afterward, he found a sign on the front door of his home that read: “Coons and Carters go together.”

It wasn’t until the 1962 Supreme Court ruling in Baker v. Carr, which required that voting districts be redrawn in a way that stopped privileging rural white voters, that Carter saw an opportunity for a “new Southerner,” such as he considered himself, to win political office. That same year, he ran for the Georgia State Senate against a local businessman named Homer Moore. Although the initial vote showed that Moore had won the election, it was blatantly obvious that his victory was the result of widespread fraud. In one precinct, 420 ballots were cast even though only 333 were issued. Carter appealed the outcome, and a Georgia judge discarded the fraudulent votes and declared Carter the winner. As a two-term state senator, Carter earned a reputation as a tough and independent politician, curbing wasteful spending and steadfastly supporting civil rights.


Jimmy Carter (Photo by Library of Congress:Corbis:VCG via Getty Images)

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Jimmy Carter in his Navy uniform


Jimmy Carter on his peanut farm, Plains, Georgia, 1976. (Photo by PhotoQuest:Getty Images)

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Jimmy Carter on his peanut farm in Plains, Georgia in 1976


Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter attend Former Governor of Georgia Jimmy Carter's fundraiser for his 1976 Presidential run at Royal Coach Inn Atlanta Georgia February 14, 1976 (Photo By Rick Diamond:Getty Images)

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Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter attend Former Governor of Georgia Jimmy Carter's fundraiser for his 1976 Presidential run at Royal Coach Inn Atlanta Georgia February 14, 1976


Jimmy Carter and Singers:Songwriters James Brown attend Former Governor of Georgia Jimmy Carter's fundraiser for his 1976 Presidential run at Royal Coach Inn Atlanta Georgia February 14, 1976 (Photo By Rick Diamond:Getty Images)

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Jimmy Carter and James Brown at Carter's fundraiser for his 1976 presidential run at Royal Coach Inn Atlanta Georgia February 14, 1976


Jimmy Carter is sworn in by chief justice Earl Burger as the 39th president of the United States while first lady Rosalynn looks on, Washington DC, January 20, 1977. (Photo by Hulton Archive:Getty Images)

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Jimmy Carter is sworn in by chief justice Earl Burger as the 39th president of the United States on January 20, 1977, in Washington DC


President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn walk with daughter Amy, in inaugural parade. (Photo by Dan Farrell:NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)

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Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter walk with their daughter, Amy, in his inaugural parade on January 20, 1977


President JImmy Carter talks with his daughter Amy, who sits on his lap, in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington DC, 1978. (Photo by Katherine Young:Getty Images)

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Jimmy Carter talks with his daughter Amy in the Oval Office in 1978.


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Anwar Sadat Jimmy Carter Menachem Begin Camp David Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images


f Jimmy Carter Signing Extension of Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) Ratification, 1978. Image courtesy National Archives. (Photo by Smith Collection:Gado:Getty Images).

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Jimmy Carter Signing Extension of Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) Ratification in 1978


t Jimmy Carter, Vice President Walter Mondale and wives greet Pope John Paul ll during his visit to Washington, DC, October 7, 1979. (Photo by Bill Fitzpatrick:White House:The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images)

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President Jimmy Carter, Vice President Walter Mondale and wives greet Pope John Paul ll during his visit to Washington, DC, on October 7, 1979.


President Jimmy Carter accepts the Democratic nomination for president at the 1980 convention.-getty

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Jimmy Carter accepts the Democratic nomination for president at the 1980 convention


Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalyn attach siding to the front of a Habitat for Humanity home being built June 10, 2003 in LaGrange, Georgia (Photo by Erik S. Lesser:Getty Images)

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Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, attach siding to the front of a Habitat for Humanity home being built June 10, 2003, in LaGrange, Georgia


Jimmy Carter, first lady Michelle Obama, and former president Bill Clinton wave as they leave at the end of the Let Freedom Ring ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial August 28, 2013 (Photo by Alex Wong:Getty Images)

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Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton wave as they leave at the end of the Let Freedom Ring ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 2013


2019 President and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. (Photo by Paul Hennessy:NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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Jimmy Carter in 2019


The 39th President of the United States

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Jimmy Carter was raised on a peanut farm in rural Georgia and went on to become the nation’s 39th president, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, a humanitarian, and best-selling author.


A Young Jimmy

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Jimmy Carter was born on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, where he lived until his family moved to the nearby town of Archery when Carter was 4 years old. He was the oldest of four children.


Growing Up in Rural Georgia

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Jimmy Carter pets a colt in a field. His boyhood home initially did not have electricity or running water, and Carter had many chores, including feeding livestock, cutting wood, and carrying water to workers in the field.


Naval Career

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After graduating from the Naval Academy in 1946, Jimmy Carter served in the Navy for more than seven years. One of his postings was in New York, where the lieutenant worked with Admiral Hyman Rickover to develop a nuclear submarine program. In October 1953, Carter was honorably discharged.


Peanut Farmer

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Jimmy Carter, seen here in 1976, assumed responsibility of the family peanut farm after his father passed away in 1953. Shortly after the Carter family moved to rural Georgia, Jimmy got involved in local politics.


Georgia Governor

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As Georgia governor, Jimmy Carter presents a personalized license plate to Hank Aaron at the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in 1974 to commemorate the baseball legend’s 715th home run, which broke Babe Ruth’s record. Carter lost his first race for the governor’s office but was elected in 1970.


The Carter Family

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Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter had four children: John William “Jack”, James Earl “Chip”, Donnel Jeffrey “Jeff”, and Amy. This photo, including the families of the Carters’ three sons, is circa 1976.

First row: daughter Amy
Second row: Rosalynn, Jimmy, daughter-in-law Annette, son Jeff
Third row: son Chip, daughter-in-law Caron, grandson Jason, son Jack, daughter-in-law Judy


1976 Presidential Campaign

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Jimmy Carter and singer James Brown share a stage during one of Carter’s presidential campaign fundraisers at the Royal Coach Inn in Atlanta on February 14, 1976. The one-term former governor of Georgia was not as well-known as the other Democratic candidates, but in the wake of the Watergate scandal, his outsider status worked to his advantage.


Presidential Inauguration

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Chief Justice Earl Burger swears in Jimmy Carter as the 39th president of the United States on January 20, 1977, in Washington, D.C. First Lady Rosalynn Carter held the family bible, upon which Jimmy recited the oath of office.


Inaugural Parade

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Jimmy, Amy, and Rosalynn Carter walk during the inaugural parade on January 20, 1977. Jimmy was the first president to walk on Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, a tradition that continues today.


Parenting from the Oval Office

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Amy Carter sits on her father’s lap at his desk in the Oval Office in 1978. Amy was 9 years old when her dad entered the White House.


Camp David Accords

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Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin join hands after the Camp David Accords on September 18, 1978, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. The trio had spent the previous 13 days at the Maryland presidential retreat as Carter brokered the groundbreaking treaty.


Civil Rights Work

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On October 20, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signs the Extension of Equal Rights Amendment, a proposed constitutional amendment that guarantees equal rights for women. At the time, the ERA had be ratified by 35 states, three short of the necessary three-fourths majority for the amendment to take effect. Throughout his life and political career, Carter has advocated for gender and racial equality.


Papal Visit to the White House

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Pope John Paul II is welcomed to the White House by President Jimmy Carter, First Lady Rosalynn Cater, Second Lady Joan Mondale, and Vice President Walter Mondale on October 7, 1979. It was the first papal visit to the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.


1980 Presidential Nomination

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Jimmy Carter accepts the Democratic nomination for president at the 1980 convention on August 14 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy challenged the incumbent president, who would go on to lose to Ronald Reagan in the general election.


Author Jimmy Carter

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Amy and Jimmy Carter hold The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer, which Jimmy wrote based on a story he used to tell his kids. Amy illustrated the book, which was published in 1996. During his lifetime, Jimmy wrote 32 books.


Election Monitoring

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Jimmy Carter, who was leading an international delegation to observe the Palestinian elections, checks a ballot box in the West Bank’s Daheisha refugee camp on January 20, 1996. The Carter Center has monitored 113 elections in 39 countries since 1989.


USS Jimmy Carter Submarine Dedication

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Jimmy Carter walks past a Naval Honor Guard during a dedication ceremony for the nuclear submarine that bears his name at the Pentagon on April 27, 1998 in Washington, D.C. The USS Jimmy Carter was commissioned in 2005.


Nobel Peace Prize

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In 2002, Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize “for 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.” He accepted the honor in Oslo, Norway.


Habitat for Humanity Volunteering

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Jimmy Carter attaches siding to the front of a Habitat for Humanity home being built on June 10, 2003, in LaGrange, Georgia. Jimmy and Rosalynn began volunteering with the nonprofit for one week each year in 1984.


50th Anniversary of the March on Washington

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President Barack Obama, former President Jimmy Carter, First Lady Michelle Obama, and former President Bill Clinton attend the Let Freedom Ring event at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 2013. The ceremony marked the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and the March on Washington.


Sunday School Teacher

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For nearly 40 years, Jimmy Carter was a regular Sunday school teacher at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. This April 28, 2019 lesson marked one of his last before he stopped teaching later that year.

In 1966, after briefly considering a run for the United States House of Representatives, Carter instead decided to run for governor. However, in the midst of a white backlash to the Civil Rights Movement, Carter’s liberal campaign failed to gain momentum in the Democratic primaries, and he finished a distant third place. The eventual winner was Lester Maddox, an ardent segregationist who had infamously barricaded the doors of his restaurant and brandished an axe to ward off Black customers.

Governors were limited to one term under Georgia law, though, so Carter almost immediately began positioning himself for the 1970 gubernatorial election. This time around, Carter ran a campaign specifically targeted at the white rural voters who had rejected him as too liberal in 1966. Carter publicly opposed busing as a method of integrating public schools, limited public appearances with Black leaders, and actively courted the endorsements of several noted segregationists, including Governor Maddox. He so completely reversed his staunch commitment to civil rights that the liberal Atlanta Constitution Journal called him an “ignorant, racist, backward, ultra-conservative, red-necked South Georgia peanut farmer.” Nevertheless, the strategy worked, and in 1970, Carter defeated Carl Sanders to become governor of Georgia.

Once he was elected governor, Carter largely returned to the progressive values he had promoted earlier in his career. He publicly called for an end to segregation, increased the number of Black officials in state government by 25 percent, and promoted education and prison reform. Carter’s signature accomplishment as governor was slashing and streamlining the enormous state bureaucracy into a lean and efficient machine. However, Carter showed disdain for the niceties of political decorum and alienated many traditional Democratic allies, with whom he might otherwise have worked closely.

1976 Presidential Campaign

Always forward-thinking, Carter carefully observed the national political currents of the 1970s. After the liberal George McGovern got pounded by Republican Richard Nixon in the 1972 presidential election, Carter decided the Democrats needed a centrist figure to regain the presidency in 1976. When the Watergate scandal shattered American confidence in Washington politics, Carter further concluded that the next president would need to be an outsider. He thought he fit the bill on both counts.

jimmy carter stands among a crowd and speaks into a microphone, behind him is a bus and police car
Democratic presidential nominee Jimmy Carter rallies a crowd in Pittsburgh in September 1976. Getty Images

Carter was one of 10 candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976, and at first, he was probably the least well-known. However, in a time of deep frustration with establishment politicians, Carter’s anonymity proved an advantage. He campaigned on such centrist themes as reducing government waste, balancing the budget, and increasing government assistance to the poor.

The centerpieces of Carter’s appeal were his outsider status and his integrity. “I’ll never tell a lie,” Carter famously declared. “I’ll never avoid a controversial issue.” Another of his pithy campaign slogans was “A Leader, For a Change.” These themes hit home with an electorate feeling betrayed by its own government during the Watergate scandal.

Carter secured the Democratic nomination to challenge the Republican incumbent Gerald Ford, Nixon’s erstwhile vice president who had assumed the presidency when Nixon resigned in the aftermath of Watergate. Although Carter entered the race with a double-digit lead over the unexciting Ford, he made several gaffes that narrowed the polls. Most prominently, in an interview with Playboy, Carter admitted to committing adultery “in his heart” and made several other glib remarks about sex and infidelity that alienated many voters. Although the election turned out much closer than initially expected, Carter nevertheless won to become the 39th president of the United States of America.

Presidency

Carter assumed the presidency in 1977 at a time of considerable optimism, initially enjoying sky-high approval ratings. Symbolizing his commitment to a new kind of leadership, after his inaugural address Carter got out of his limousine to walk to the White House amongst his supporters.

Carter’s main domestic priority involved energy policy. With oil prices rising, and in the aftermath of the 1973 oil embargo, Carter believed it imperative to cure the United States of its dependence on foreign oil. Although Carter succeeded in decreasing foreign oil consumption by 8 percent and developing huge emergency stores of oil and natural gas, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 again drove up oil prices and led to long lines at gas stations, overshadowing Carter’s achievements.

Camp David Accords

israeli prime minister menachem begin, us president jimmy carter, and egyptian president anwar al sadat stands outside a wooden building and smile, they wear business attire
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat met for the historic Camp David Accords in September 1978. Getty Images

Carter’s foreign policy centered around a promise to make human rights a central concern in the United States’ relations with other countries. He suspended economic and military aid to Chile, El Salvador, and Nicaragua in protest of those regimes’ human rights abuses. But Carter’s most notable foreign policy achievement was his successful mediation of the 1978 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, leading to a historic peace treaty in which Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula, and the two sides officially recognized each other’s governments.

Despite these noteworthy achievements, Carter’s presidency was widely considered a failure. He had very poor relationships with Congress and the media, stifling his ability to enact legislation or effectively communicate his policies. In 1979, Carter delivered a disastrous speech, referred to as the “Crisis of Confidence” speech, in which he seemed to blame America’s problems on the poor spirit of its people.

Several foreign policy blunders also contributed to Carter’s loosening grip on the presidency. His secret negotiations to return the Panama Canal to Panama led many people to believe he was a weak leader who had “given away” the canal without securing necessary provisions for defending American interests.

Iran Hostage Crisis

Probably the biggest factor in Carter’s declining political fortunes, however, was the Iranian Hostage Crisis. In November 1979, radical Iranian students seized the United States Embassy in Tehran, taking 66 Americans hostage. Carter’s failure to negotiate the hostages’ release, followed by a badly botched rescue mission, made him look like an impotent leader who had been outmaneuvered by a group of radical students. The hostages were held for 444 days before finally being released on the day Carter left office in 1981.

Ronald Reagan, the former actor and governor of California, challenged Carter for the presidency in 1980. Reagan ran a smooth and effective campaign, simply asking voters, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” Most were not; Reagan crushed Carter in the 1980 election, which was essentially a referendum on a failed presidency. As the New York Times put it, “On Election Day, Mr. Carter was the issue.”

Humanitarian Work through The Carter Center

Despite a largely unsuccessful one-term presidency, Carter later rehabilitated his reputation through his humanitarian efforts after leaving the White House. He is now widely considered one of the greatest ex-presidents in American history.

He worked extensively with Habitat for Humanity and founded The Carter Center in 1982 to promote human rights and alleviate suffering across the globe. In particular, Carter and his nonprofit developed community-based health care systems in Africa and Latin America, oversaw 125 elections in fledgling democracies as of August 2024, and promoted peace in the Middle East. The Center’s Guinea Worm Eradication Program has helped to nearly eradicate the parasitic disease among humans. According to the nonprofit, there were an estimated 3.5 million cases in Africa and Asia in 1986 compared to just 13 provisional cases worldwide in 2022.

In 2002, Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize “for 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.” Delivering his Nobel Lecture in 2002, Carter concluded with words that can be seen as both his life mission and his call to action for future generations. “The bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices,” he said. “God gives us the capacity for choice. We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace. We can make these changes—and we must.”

Because of his tireless work both before and since his presidency in support of equality, human rights, and the alleviation of human suffering, Carter is remembered as one of the nation’s great social activists.

Wife and Children

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were married for more than 77 years—longer than any other presidential couple in history—and celebrated their final anniversary together in July 2023. Rosalynn, who had dementia, died later that year on November 19, just days after entering hospice care.

Like her husband, Rosalynn also grew up in Plains, Georgia. They first met as children; Jimmy’s mother, Lillian, was one of the nurses who helped deliver Rosalynn in 1927, and she took her son to check up on the infant and her mother a few days after Rosalynn’s birth.

Friendly growing up, Jimmy and Rosalynn reconnected when he was home from college. A romance soon began. They wed on July 7, 1946.

During Carter’s years in the military, the couple had three sons: John William, born in 1947 and known as Jack; James Earl Carter III, born in 1950 and known as Chip; and Donnel Jeffrey, born in 1952 and who goes by Jeff. Later, they had a daughter, Amy, born in 1967. Still a child when her father was elected president, Amy grew up somewhat in the national spotlight unlike her brothers.

Jimmy also had 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. In 2015, the Carters’ 28-year-old grandson Jeremy (from their son Jeff) died of a heart attack.

Books and Personal Life

A prolific writer, Carter authored 32 books, all but one of which were published after his presidency. He wrote several memoirs, including A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety (2015); issue-based nonfiction works such as Palestine Peace Not Apartheid (2006) and A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power (2014); a book of poetry, Always a Reckoning, and other Poems (1995); and a historical fiction novel, The Hornet’s Nest (2003), about the Revolutionary War. His daughter, Amy, illustrated his children’s book, The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer (1996), that Carter based on a story he used to tell his kids. His last book, Faith: A Journey for All was published in 2018 and reflects on the importance of spirituality in his own life and its influence in shaping American history.

jimmy carter stands next to a wooden podium and smiles as he looks forward, he wears a dark suit jacket and blue collared shirt, people are sitting in front of and behind him
In April 2019, Jimmy Carter speaks to the congregation at Maranantha Baptist Church, in Plains, Georgia. He taught Sunday school there for many years. Getty Images

A devout Christian, Carter was raised Southern Baptist, though he left the Southern Baptist Convention in 2000 after disagreeing with the denomination’s stances that women shouldn’t be pastors and wives should be subservient to their husbands. He and Rosalynn attended Plains’ Maranatha Baptist Church, which they joined in 1981 and where they were both deacons. A well-known Sunday school teacher, Carter first began teaching Bible lessons while at the Naval Academy and continued throughout his life. Hundreds of people from across the country flocked to his Sunday school services at Maranatha for decades until he stopped teaching in late 2019.

Carter had many hobbies, including fly-fishing, woodworking, painting, and rooting on the Atlanta Braves baseball team. He was an avid runner until age 80 and a third-generation winemaker. In a 2017 interview with Oprah Winfrey, the former president said he and his wife challenged themselves to find new hobbies that they could enjoy together. That led them to learn how to downhill ski when Carter was 62 and Rosalynn was 59.

Health Challenges

On August 12, 2015, Carter underwent surgery to remove a mass from his liver. Eight days later, the 90-year-old announced he was diagnosed with cancer that had spread to other parts of his body. On August 20, Carter held a news conference in which he said doctors had found four “very small spots” of melanoma on his brain. After undergoing a treatment regime that included targeted radiation, the former president announced he was cancer-free during one of his Sunday school lessons in early December 2015.

On March 21, 2019, Carter became the longest-living U.S. president at 94 years and 172 days old, surpassing the mark established by George H.W. Bush. That year also brought more health challenges. In May, Carter broke his hip during a fall and had hip replacement surgery. In October, two more falls resulted in stitches above his eye then a “minor” pelvic fracture. Carter also had surgery that November to relieve pressure on his brain caused by bleeding from the falls.

Hospice and Death

Jimmy Carter died at age 100 on December 29, 2024, at his home in Plains, Georgia.

Carter was in hospice for an unusually long time. When he was 98, he began receiving end-of-life care at his home on February 18, 2023, “after a series of short hospital stays.” His grandson Jason Carter later told The New York Times that the former president was only expected to live for five days to a week after that announcement. However, Jimmy defied the odds and lived for an additional 23 months.

Six days of memorial services for Carter began on January 4, 2025. He received state and national funerals in Georgia and Washington D.C., with his body lying in state at the Capitol Rotunda for more than a day. President Joe Biden, who is delivering a eulogy for Carter at the national funeral, declared January 9 a National Day of Mourning.

The former president and humanitarian will be buried at his former Georgia home next to his late wife, Rosalynn.

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