Longest-Living President Celebrates 98th Birthday

Jimmy Carter, who grandson says is still 'with it,' receives calls and callers at home
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 1, 2022 4:00 PM CDT
Jimmy Carter Celebrates 98th
Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, attend a reception to celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary in July 2021, in Plains, Ga.   (AP Photo/John Bazemore, Pool, File)

Former President Jimmy Carter marked his 98th birthday Saturday modestly, as usual, at home in Plains, Georgia. "Friends are calling, and family are around," said Jill Stuckey, superintendent of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park, who visited the nation's longest-living president in the morning. "He is remarkable." Thousands of people wrote personal messages on a "Happy Birthday, President Carter!" website, per the Washington Post. "What strikes me is the depth of feeling people have for him," said Matthew Degalan, a spokesman for the Atlanta-based Carter Center, which set up the website. "People look at him as a person of values and principles, and they miss that in politics today."

Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, 95, were driven around the town's annual Peanut Festival last weekend in a red convertible, greeting people. He's reportedly following reports on Hurricane Ian this weekend at home, as well as baseball. "He's still 100% with it, even though daily life things are a lot harder now," his grandson Jason said, per the AP. "But one thing I guarantee. He will watch all the Braves games this weekend." The Carters volunteered a week each year with Habitat for Humanity until the pandemic arrived in 2020, per People.

He was a one-term president who's done much to enhance his place in history since leaving office, working for decades to promote human rights and democracy around the world. In 2002, Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize. He's also written 30 books, the most recent at age 93. Some of the birthday greetings people posted said he was ahead of his time in at least one way that resonates now when he had solar panels installed at the White House. At the time, Carter was criticized for it. (More Jimmy Carter stories.)

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