Former President Jimmy Carter smiles as he is awarded the Order of Manuel Amador Guerrero by Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela during a ceremony at the Carter Center, Jan. 14, 2016, in Atlanta. Well-wishes and fond remembrances for the former president continued to roll in Sunday, Feb. 19, 2023, a day after he entered hospice care at his home in Georgia. [Courtesy, AP]

If consistency was a person, then that would most likely be Jimmy Carter. So much so that after his first date with Rosalynn Smith in 1945, Jimmy told his mother, "She's the girl I want to marry," They wed a year later, on July 7, 1946.

James Earl Carter, Jr. later served as Senator of Georgia state, and as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975. He did not stop there, he had his eyes set on the presidency, and he sure clinched the seat in 1977, a position he held till 1981.

Carter, at age 98 the longest-lived American president, has had a recent series of short hospital stays. The Carter Center said in a statement Saturday that he has now "decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention."

Carter, who has rarely used his full name-James Earl Carter, Jr.-was born October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia. Peanut farming, talk of politics, and devotion to the Baptist faith were mainstays of his upbringing.

His father, James Earl Carter, Sr., was a farmer and businessman; his mother, Lillian Gordy Carter, a registered nurse.

He was educated in the public school of Plains, attended Georgia Southwestern College and the Georgia Institute of Technology, and received a B.S. degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1946. In the Navy he became a submariner, serving in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets and rising to the rank of lieutenant.

Chosen by Admiral Hyman Rickover for the nuclear submarine program, he was assigned to Schenectady, New York, where he took graduate work at Union College in reactor technology and nuclear physics and served as senior officer of the pre-commissioning crew of the Seawolf, the second nuclear submarine.

Upon graduation in 1946 from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, Carter married Rosalynn Smith. The Carters have three sons, John William (Jack), James Earl III (Chip), Donnel Jeffrey (Jeff), and a daughter, Amy Lynn.

The Carters have been married for more than 75 years, making American history as the longest-married presidential couple.

Politics

After seven years' service as a naval officer, Carter returned to Plains. In 1962 he entered state politics, and eight years later he was elected Governor of Georgia. Among the new young southern governors, he attracted attention by emphasizing ecology, efficiency in government, and the removal of racial barriers.

Carter announced his candidacy for President in December 1974 and began a two-year campaign that gradually gained momentum. At the Democratic Convention, he was nominated on the first ballot. He chose Senator Walter F. Mondale of Minnesota as his running mate. Carter campaigned hard against President Gerald R. Ford, debating with him three times. Carter won by 297 electoral votes to 241 for Ford.

Carter worked hard to combat the continuing economic woes of inflation and unemployment. By the end of his administration, he could claim an increase of nearly eight million jobs and a decrease in the budget deficit, measured in percentage of the gross national product. Unfortunately, inflation and interest rates were at near record highs, and efforts to reduce them caused a short recession.

President Jimmy Carter waves from the roof of his car along the parade route through Bardstown, Ky., July 31, 1979. Well-wishes and fond remembrances for the former president continued to roll in Sunday, Feb. 19, 2023, a day after he entered hospice care at his home in Georgia. [Courtesy, AP]

Carter could point to a number of achievements in domestic affairs. He dealt with the energy shortage by establishing a national energy policy and by decontrolling domestic petroleum prices to stimulate production. He prompted Government efficiency through civil service reform and proceeded with deregulation of the trucking and airline industries. He sought to improve the environment. His expansion of the national park system included protection of 103 million acres of Alaskan lands. To increase human and social services, he created the Department of Education, bolstered the Social Security system, and appointed record numbers of women, blacks, and Hispanics to Government jobs.

In foreign affairs, Carter set his own style. His championing of human rights was coldly received by the Soviet Union and some other nations. In the Middle East, through the Camp David agreement of 1978, he helped bring amity between Egypt and Israel. He succeeded in obtaining ratification of the Panama Canal treaties. Building upon the work of predecessors, he established full diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China and completed negotiation of the SALT II nuclear limitation treaty with the Soviet Union.

President Jimmy Carter
On Dec. 12, 1974, he announced his candidacy for president of the United States. He won his party's nomination on the first ballot at the 1976 Democratic National Convention and was elected president on Nov. 2, 1976.

Jimmy Carter served as president from Jan. 20, 1977 to Jan. 20, 1981. Significant foreign policy accomplishments of his administration included the Panama Canal treaties, the Camp David Accords, the treaty of peace between Egypt and Israel, the SALT II treaty with the Soviet Union, and the establishment of U.S. diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. He championed human rights throughout the world.

On the domestic side, the administration's achievements included a comprehensive energy program conducted by a new Department of Energy; deregulation in energy, transportation, communications, and finance; major educational programs under a new Department of Education; and major environmental protection legislation, including the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

There were serious setbacks, however. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan caused the suspension of plans for ratification of the SALT II pact. The seizure as hostages of the U. S. embassy staff in Iran dominated the news during the last 14 months of the administration. The consequences of Iran's holding Americans captive, together with continuing inflation at home, contributed to Carter's defeat in 1980. Even then, he continued the difficult negotiations over the hostages. Iran finally released the 52 Americans the same day Carter left office.

Carter served a single, tumultuous term and was defeated by Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980, a landslide loss that ultimately paved the way for his decades of global advocacy for democracy, public health and human rights via The Carter Center.

The Carter Center

In 1982, he became University Distinguished Professor at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and founded The Carter Center. The nonpartisan and nonprofit Center addresses national and international issues of public policy. Carter Center staff and associates have joined with President Carter in efforts to resolve conflict, promote democracy, protect human rights, and prevent disease and other afflictions. The Center has spearheaded the international effort to eradicate Guinea worm disease, which is poised to be the second human disease in history to be eradicated.

Former President Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church, in Plains, Ga., Nov. 3, 2019. Well-wishes and fond remembrances for the former president continued to roll in Sunday, Feb. 19, 2023, a day after he entered hospice care at his home in Georgia. [Courtesy, AP]

The permanent facilities of The Carter Presidential Center were dedicated in October 1986, and include the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum, administered by the National Archives. Also open to visitors is the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park in Plains, administered by the National Park Service.

Until 2020, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter volunteered one week a year for Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit organization that helps needy people in the United States and in other countries renovate and build homes for themselves. He also taught Sunday school in the Maranatha Baptist Church of Plains. The Carters have three sons, one daughter, nine grandsons (one deceased), three granddaughters, five great-grandsons, and nine great-granddaughters.

On December 10, 2002, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2002 to Jimmy Carter "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."

Flowers are shown on the grounds of the Carter Center in Atlanta, Sunday, Feb. 19, 2023. Well-wishes and fond remembrances for former President Jimmy Carter were pouring in a day after he entered hospice care at his home in Georgia. [Courtesy, AP]