Former President Jimmy Carter passed away on Sunday at the age of 100. The Carter Center confirmed that the 39th president died in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family. Carter had been receiving hospice care at home since February 2023 following several short hospitalizations.
Carter, a Democrat, served a single term from 1977 to 1981, losing a reelection bid to Ronald Reagan. Despite his notable achievements as a peacemaker, Carter’s presidency is largely remembered as an unfulfilled four years shaken by blows to America’s economy and standing overseas.
His most enduring legacy, though, might be as a globetrotting elder statesman and human rights pioneer during an indefatigable 43-year “retirement.”
Jimmy Carter, the 39th US president, dies at age 100
President Joe Biden said in a statement that “America and the world lost an extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian” as well as a man of “great character and courage, hope and optimism.”
“With his compassion and moral clarity, he worked to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil rights and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless, and always advocate for the least among us.
He saved, lifted, and changed the lives of people all across the globe,” Biden said.
He declared January 9 a National Day of Mourning and called on “people of the world who share our grief to join us in this solemn observance.”
President-elect Donald Trump urged everyone to keep the Carter family in their prayers.
“Those of us who have been fortunate to have served as President understand this is a very exclusive club, and only we can relate to the enormous responsibility of leading the Greatest Nation in History,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“The challenges Jimmy faced as President came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude.”
Carter became the oldest living former presidentwhen he surpassed the record held by the late George H.W. Bush in March 2019.
Carter’s beloved wife, Rosalynn, died in November 2023.
They had been inseparable during their 77-year marriage, and after she passed away, the former president said in a statement that “as long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.”
The former president attended his wife’s memorial events, including a private burial and a televised tribute service in Atlanta, where he was seated in the front row in a reclined wheelchair.
He did not deliver any remarks.
Carter took office in 1977 with the earnest promise to lead a government as “good and honest and decent and compassionate and filled with love as are the American people” following what had started as an unlikely long-shot bid for the Democratic Party’s nomination.
The Southerner with a flashing smile did enjoy significant successes, particularly abroad.
He forged a rare, enduring Middle East peace deal between Israel and Egypt that stands to this day, formalized President Richard Nixon’s opening to communist China and put human rights at the center of US foreign policy.
But Carter was ultimately felled by a 444-day hostage crisis in Iran, in which revolutionary students flouted the US superpower by holding dozens of Americans in Tehran.
The feeling of US malaise triggered by the crisis was exacerbated by Carter’s domestic struggles, including a sluggish economy, inflation and an energy crisis.
Tributes poured in for former US President Jimmy Carter who died at 100. Biden described the Nobel Peace Prize recipient as a ‘statesman and a humanitarian’ https://t.co/RPhBXKCoZQ pic.twitter.com/wo2JuG5HpF
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 30, 2024
