Former US President Jimmy Carter is dead. The 39th President of the United States died on Sunday in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family, as Carter’s foundation announced. Carter lived to be 100 years old. He served in the White House from 1977 to 1981.
Carter is survived by 4 children, 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. “My father was a hero – not just to me, but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights and selfless love,” the foundation quoted Carter’s son Chip as saying. Public funeral ceremonies are planned in Atlanta and the US capital Washington.
After his first term in office, the Democrat was not re-elected. He lost the election against Republican Ronald Reagan. In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his “decades of commitment to the peaceful resolution of international conflicts.”
Carter was the oldest living former US president, and none of his predecessors lived to be older than him. He was preceded in death by his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn, and one grandchild.
In November he fulfilled his wish and voted by mail in the US presidential election. Carter had previously made it clear that he wanted to support Democrat Kamala Harris.
Carter’s health was poor recently – he turned 100 on October 1st. Around a year and a half ago, after several hospital stays, he stopped his medical treatment and sought home care.
Carter’s oldest living successor is now the current incumbent Joe Biden (November 20, 1942), followed by Donald Trump (June 14, 1946), George W. Bush (July 6, 1946), Bill Clinton (August 19, 1946) and Barack Obama (August 4, 1961).
Carter made it public in 2015 that he had cancer, but he was able to overcome it. In recent years, Carter has been hospitalized several times because of falls.
After leaving the White House, Carter repeatedly got involved in politics. Contrary to custom, the Democrat also criticized subsequent presidents – including the Republican and President-elect Trump.
Carter’s term in office was primarily overshadowed by the hostage-taking of diplomats at the US embassy in Tehran in 1979 and the failed liberation operation the following year. After leaving the presidency, Carter and his wife Rosalynn founded the Carter Center in Atlanta to promote democracy, human rights and economic development. He remained actively involved in his humanitarian work well into his old age.
In November 2019, Carter made it clear at a service in his hometown of Plains that he viewed death with calm. “I didn’t ask God to let me live,” he said. “I asked God to give me an appropriate attitude toward death. And I found that I was completely at peace with death.”
