JIMMY CARTER (October 1, 1924 – December 29, 2024)

"The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens."

"I’ve never won an argument with her; and the only times I thought I had I found out the argument wasn’t over yet."

"I have one life and one chance to make it count for something. I’m free to choose that something … my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I can, whenever I can, for as long as I can."

"The bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices," said Jimmy Carter, upon accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

"I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over. The test of a government is not how popular it is with the powerful and privileged few, but how honestly and fairly it deals with the many who must depend upon it."

President Biden has declared January 9, 2025, a National Day of Mourning for former President Carter. He will receive a state funeral at Washington National Cathedral. Prior to that day, he will lie in repose at the Carter Center in Atlanta on January 4-5. He will lie in state in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on January 6. President Biden has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff for 30 days, in accordance with federal law. The former president will be interred at his home in Plains, Georgia. 

Eulogies will be delivered by President Biden; Jason Carter, Carter's grandson and a family spokesperson; Steven Ford, on behalf of his father, the late former President Gerald Ford; and Ted Mondale, on behalf of his father, the late former Vice President Walter Mondale.

"Our great nation now teeters on the brink of a widening abyss. Without immediate action, we are at genuine risk of civil conflict and losing our precious democracy. Americans must set aside differences and work together before it is too late."

• Jimmy Carter was the 39th president of the United States (1977-1981).
• He was the first president born in a hospital.
• He chose to take the presidential oath of office using the name "Jimmy" rather than James.
• Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were married for 77 years––longer than any other presidential couple. They had four children.
• President Carter was ahead of his time in planning to use solar power and installed solar panels on the White House. They were removed during the Reagan administration. 
• He nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the U.S. Court of Appeals.
• He appointed the first Black woman to serve in a presidential cabinet.
• "I believe that Jesus would approve same-sex marriage," Carter told an interviewer in 2015.
• He taught Sunday School at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains.
• As a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, he assisted in dismantling the partially melted core of a nuclear reactor in Canada.
• He and Rosalynn lived simply. After his term in the White House, they returned to their small ranch house in Plains. Their business had accumulated significant debts during his presidency. Carter began writing books to resolve the debt, and wrote more than 30, but resolved not to profit from being a former president.
• He returned control of the Panama Canal to Panama; he pardoned Vietnam war draft dodgers.
• When the Southern Baptist Convention said it wouldn't allow women to become pastors, he ended his membership.
• He had three younger siblings, all of whom died of pancreatic cancer in their 50s or 60s.
• Carter holds the record for the longest presidential retirement; he was the first president to live to age 100.