Jimmy Carter, Nation’s 39th President, Passes Away at 100

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, whose single term in the Oval Office gave way to a long, Nobel Peace Prize-winning post-presidential career as a humanitarian, diplomat, author and Sunday School teacher, died today. He was 100.

Carter, the nation’s 39th president, served from 1977 to 1981. He was a devout Christian and a famously kind man. In addition to his international peacekeeping missions, he spent much of his retirement with his wife, Rosalynn, helping to build houses for the disadvantaged with the charity Habitat for Humanity. The Carter Center, established by the couple, describes its international mission as “Waging Peace. Fighting Disease. Building Hope.”

“President Jimmy Carter was the personification of the American spirit – compassionate, humanitarian, and peacemaker,” said Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress. “His lifelong work in public service helped shape this world into a better one and inspired generations of people who seek positive social change. Our hearts are with the Carter family.”

Rosalynn Carter passed away on Nov. 19, 2023, at the age of 96. The Carters were married for 77 years.

The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta holds his papers and is administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. At the Library, you can find much about Carter’s life and presidency with both a digital resource guide and one for print items. Further, the Manuscript Division holds the papers of Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter’s national security adviser; Madeleine Albright, who served on the National Security Council staff; and Harold Brown, Carter’s secretary of defense.

Carter was born in Plains, a small town in southwest Georgia, in 1924, into a family that ran a peanut farm. (Trivia: He was the first president born in a hospital.) After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, he served in the Navy for seven years, reaching the rank of lieutenant and serving primarily on submarines. But after his father died in 1953, he took an honorable discharge and returned home to manage the family farming operation. He went into politics as a Democrat, serving in the Georgia state legislature in the 1960s, when the civil rights movement was at its peak. He was Georgia’s governor from 1971 to 1975.

After his presidency, he worked as a peacemaker in many international conflicts, including the Bosnian war, but also stayed close to home, teaching Sunday school classes at the tiny Maranatha Baptist Church back in Plains.

He was awarded the 2002 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 was still helping to build houses for Habitat into his mid-90s, dressing in the work jeans, boots and a T-shirt given to all volunteers.

David Rubenstein, chair of the Library’s Madison Council, served in the Carter administration from 1977 to 1981 as deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy.

“President Carter lived an incredibly full life, and served his country remarkably well as a naval officer, president, and global citizen and advocate for human dignity, racial and gender equality, and democratic values,” Rubenstein said. “We shall not see another like him for generations, if ever. No doubt, he is already telling God how things might be rearranged in heaven to create greater fairness and civility.”

Subscribe to the blog— it’s free!