“Friends are calling and family is around,” Jill Stuckey, superintendent of Jimmy Carter National Historical Park and a family friend, he said after visiting the former president Saturday morning. “He is remarkable.” Carter, who left the White House in 1981 after one term, has lived longer than any other US president. He and his wife, Rosalyn, 95, greeted well-wishers in public last weekend during the annual Plains Peanut Festival. A Secret Service agent drove the Carters in a red convertible. The Carter family still has farmland where peanuts grow. “It was a wonderful day. Everything came together,” Stuckey said, describing the event with the Carters’ children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren walking behind the car. “Some people’s jaws dropped when they saw them. People were applauding and some were in tears.” Friends said Carter has been following the news about Hurricane Ian and praying for those suffering because of the storm. For decades, the Carters have worked with Habitat for Humanity, which builds affordable homes and helped rebuild damaged homes after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Post Podcast: The Faith of Jimmy Carter Carter’s post-presidency stands out for how simply he continues to live in his hometown of fewer than 800 people. After leaving Washington, he spent decades promoting human rights and democracy around the world, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. The Nobel committee cited “his decades of tireless efforts to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, promote democracy and human rights, and promote economic and social development.” Until recently he taught Sunday school at his local church. Carter has overcome serious health issues, including in 2015 when he was diagnosed with melanoma that had spread to his liver and brain. After treatment, doctors said she defied the odds and announced later that year that she was cancer-free. To mark his birthday, thousands of people posted personal messages in an online “Happy Birthday, President Carter!” site created by the Carter Center. “What strikes me is the depth of feeling people have for him,” said Matthew DeGallan, a spokesman for the Atlanta-based Carter Center. “People see him as a person of values and principles, and that’s what they’re missing in politics today.” Many fans note that Carter was a visionary for installing solar panels on the White House, even when some criticized him for it at the time. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who served on a submarine, Carter was expected to spend part of his birthday watching the Navy-Air Force football game and perhaps his favorite baseball team, the Atlanta Braves, according to friends. Last year, the Carters celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary. The two are rarely apart and were in their living room, together, talking to family and friends on his birthday.
