Jimmy Carter becomes the first president to turn 100

Former Democratic President Jimmy Carter turns 100 on Tuesday, becoming the first president to live for a full century.

Carter, the nation’s 39th president, was a man who repeatedly distinguished himself from his peers. He was the first U.S. president to be born in a hospital, the first Naval Academy graduate to become president, and the first president to make a formal state visit to sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, Carter is the first US president in history to live to be 100 years old.

Carter remains under home hospice care in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, where he has lived since the height of his presidency in 1981. This February will mark two years of the former president’s hospice stay, which is survived by his wife, Rosalynn. She died last year at the age of 96.

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“It’s funny how President Carter has achieved so much and rarely fails. But the one thing he wasn’t good at was hospice,” said Jill Stuckey, a Carter family friend for more than 30 years and director of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park in Plains. “He is alive and we are very excited about that. So if he wasn’t going to be good at anything, we’re glad it’s hospice.”

When asked what Stuckey thought distinguished Carter from other former presidents who lived to a ripe old age, she replied it was “perseverance.”

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“He and Mrs. Carter were concerned about living as long as possible, staying as healthy as possible, to be able to help as many people as possible,” Stuckey told Fox News Digital. “They pretty much ate every meal. They exercised every day. They simply relentlessly take care of themselves so they can live as long as possible and take care of others. And that’s what President Carter is proving today: that it all makes a difference.”

The White House sent a message celebrating Carter’s birthday on the North Lawn.

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Stuckey said events commemorating Carter’s 100th birthday have been taking place in Plains since Saturday, when the city held its annual Peanut Festival.

“Here in the Plains, we celebrate peanut harvest season, which coincides with President Carter’s birthday every year, so we kind of combine them,” Stuckey said.

She also indicated that on Tuesday, Carter’s birthday, Plains will host several other events to commemorate his birthday, including a naturalization ceremony for 100 new citizens at Plains High School, which both Jimmy and Rosalynn attended.

The ceremony will be followed by a flyover in honor of the former president, organized with the help of Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will also be held in Plains later this afternoon for the new monuments dedicated to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

Meanwhile, to celebrate Carter’s birthday, volunteers from St. Paul, Minnesota, came together to build 30 new homes in five days. According to reports, participants included country music stars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood.

“You are one of the most influential statesmen in our history,” President Biden said in a video released Tuesday before Carter’s birthday.

Over the weekend, Grand Ole Opry member and country music legend Charlie McCoy played a special rendition of “Georgia On My Mind” to honor the former president.

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“I remember the first time I saw him and I was so impressed. This feeling has always been with me. You can be around presidents all the time, but the first time is the most significant,” said Cathie Skoog, a former member of the White House Communications Agency. “He didn’t care what people thought. He did what he thought was right for the country.”

Carter’s presidency was marked by efforts to protect the environment, advance human rights, and take the American education system to new heights. Carter overhauled the civil service system, deregulated the airline industry to encourage competition, and created departments of Energy and Education. The Carter administration also required seat belts and airbags in cars.

But Carter’s presidency was also marked by trials, including high inflation, an energy crisis and failed negotiations to free dozens of American hostages taken captive in Iran. Carter’s Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, ultimately resigned in protest at the administration’s handling of the hostage crisis.

In the face of the then ongoing Iranian revolution, oil prices in the US increased significantly. In July 1979, Carter accused Americans discouraged by rising inflation and the energy crisis of losing confidence in the country.

“The symptoms of the crisis of the American spirit are all around us,” Carter said in his speech. “For the first time in our country’s history, a majority of our citizens believe that the next five years will be worse than the last. Two thirds of our citizens don’t even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually declining, and Americans’ willingness to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world.”

“We must face the truth and then we can change our course,” he continued. “We just have to have faith in each other, faith in our ability to govern ourselves and faith in the future of this nation. “Restoring that faith and trust in America is the most important task we face today.”

Fox News’ Griff Jenkins contributed to this report.

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