When Jimmy Carter stepped onto the national stage, he brought along those closest to him, introducing Americans to a colorful Georgia family that helped shape the 39th president’s public life and now, generations later, is rallying around him for the private final chapter of his 98 years.
“Family has always been important to Uncle Jimmy,” said Kim Fuller, whose father, Billy Carter, was the former president’s youngest brother and a favorite subject of national political reporters drawn to this family of Washington outsiders.
The Carters are not an establishment dynasty like the Republican Bushes or the Democratic Kennedys – whose scion Ted Kennedy was a Carter rival. But the family is critical to understanding the former president, from his methodical style to his outspoken Baptist faith. As the candidate, Carter “would talk about how he would answer” voters so his stand-ins would be prepared for their next trips, Klobuchar said.
Unlike Earl Carter, Lillian was a relative progressive even when Carter was a child. She “was impervious to criticism because of her independent spirit,” Carter wrote around his 90th birthday. After their return to Georgia, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter built The Carter Center in Atlanta, staffed not by “the Peanut Brigade” but policy experts who advanced their international diplomatic and public health missions. In Plains, they became the marquee members of Maranatha Baptist Church, teaching Sunday School to overflow crowds until recent health problems and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Jimmy Carter: Family affair to the White House and beyondWhen Jimmy Carter stepped onto the national stage, he brought along those closest to him, introducing Americans to a colorful Georgia family that helped shape the 39th president’s public life and now, generations later, is rallying around him for the private final chapter of his 98 years
Read more »
Appreciating Jimmy Carter, outspoken but 'never irrelevant'One man who knew Carter well was Walter Mears, an AP special correspondent whose coverage of the 1976 presidential campaign won a Pulitzer Prize.
Read more »
Sunday school, church services play a big part in former President Jimmy Carter's lifeFormer President Jimmy Carter used to teach Sunday school every week at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. Sunday services are a huge part of his life
Read more »
Jimmy Carter's final foe: A parasitic worm that preyed on millions in Africa and AsiaPresident Carter’s most enduring global legacy could be making Guinea worm the second infectious human disease to be eradicated, after smallpox in 1980. JennyJarvie reports:
Read more »
‘God Bless a Great American’ | More than 9,400 well wishes sent to Jimmy CarterIn the more than a week since former President Jimmy Carter entered hospice care at his Plains, Georgia, home, he has received more than 9,400 well wishes.
Read more »
Jimmy Carter on the greatest challenges of the 21st centuryIn Nat Geo's February 2002 issue, the former U.S. president argued we already have the tools to address these seemingly insurmountable global threats.
Read more »