Jimmy Carter and his hometown of Plains celebrate the president’s 39th 100th birthday

ATLANTA (AP) — Jimmy Carter celebrated his 100th birthday Tuesday, marking the first time an American president has lived to a full century and marking a milestone in a life that took the son of a Depression-era farmer to the White House and around the world as Nobel Peace Prize winner, humanist and advocate of democracy.

While in home hospice care in Plains for the past 19 months, the Georgia Democrat and 39th president continued to defy expectations, just as he did during a remarkable rise from his family’s peanut growing and warehousing business to the world stage. He served one term as president, from 1977 to 1981, and then spent more than forty years at the helm of the Carter Center, which he and his wife, Rosalynn, founded in 1982 to “promote peace, fight disease, and build hope.”

“Not everyone gets to live 100 years on this earth, and if someone does and uses that time to do so much good for so many people, it’s worth celebrating.” – Jason Carter, grandson of a former president and chairman of the Carter Center’s governing board – he said in an interview.

“These last few months, the 19 months that he was in hospice, were a chance for our family to reflect,” he continued, “and then for the rest of the country and the world to really reflect on him. It was a really rewarding time.”

James Earl Carter Jr. was born October 1, 1924 in Plains, where he spent over 80 of the 100 years of his life. He is expected to celebrate his birthday in the same single-story house he and Rosalynn built in the early 1960s – before his first election to the Georgia State Senate. The former first lady, who was also born in Plains, died last November at the age of 96.

President Joe Biden, who became the first senator to endorse Carter’s campaign in 1976, praised his longtime friend for his “unwavering belief in the power of human kindness.”

“You have always been a moral force for our nation and our world (and) a beloved friend to Jill, me and our family,” the 81-year-old President Carter says in a video tribute filmed in front of President Carter’s portrait at the White House.

In front of the north portico, the Biden family placed a display with a large sign reading “Happy Birthday President Carter” and the number 100. Carter asked Biden to eulogize him at a state funeral at an appropriate time.

Atlanta hosted a music gala to honor the former president’s memory at the Carter Center on September 17, featuring a variety of genres and artists, including some who campaigned with him in 1976. The event raised more than $1.2 million for center programs and will be broadcast Tuesday evening on Georgia Public Broadcasting.

In St. Paul, Minnesota, Habitat for Humanity volunteers are honoring Carter with a five-day effort to build 30 homes. After leaving the White House, the Carters became leading ambassadors for the international organization and hosted annual construction projects until the 1990s. Carter survived a cancer diagnosis and treatment in the early 1990s, then several falls and hip replacement surgery in the mid-1990s before announcing at the age of 98 that he would enter hospice.

Plains residents have planned another concert for Tuesday night.

The last time Jimmy Carter was seen in public was almost a year ago, when he rode in a reclining wheelchair to attend two of his wife’s funeral services. Visibly weakened and silent, he was joined in the front row at Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church in Atlanta by the couple’s four children, each living former first lady, Biden and his wife Jill, and former President Bill Clinton. A day later, Carter joined his extended family and parishioners at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, where the former president taught Sunday school for decades.

Jason Carter said the family didn’t expect to celebrate his 100th birthday after his grandmother’s death. The former president’s hospital bed was placed in the same room so that he could see his wife of 77 years and talk to her in her final days and hours.

“Honestly, we didn’t think he would play much longer,” Jason Cater said. “But this is a journey of faith for him and he has really committed himself to what he believes is God’s plan. He knows he’s not in charge here. But especially in the last few months, he has become much more involved in world events, much more involved in politics, much more, just emotionally involved with all of us.”

Jason Carter said the centenarian president, born just four years after women were given the constitutional right to vote and four decades before Black women gained access to the ballot, looks forward to casting his votes in the 2024 presidential election for Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat who will become the first woman, second Black person and first person of South Asian descent to reach the Oval Office.

“Like many of us, he was extremely pleased with his friend Joe Biden’s bold decision to pass the baton,” the younger Carter said. “You know, my grandfather and The Carter Center watched over 100 elections in 40 other countries, right? So he knows how rare it is for someone holding the office of president to relinquish power in any context.”

Jason Carter continued, “When we started asking him about his 100th birthday, he said he was excited to vote for Kamala Harris.”

Early voting in Georgia begins Oct. 15, two weeks after Carter’s 101st birthday.

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