Jimmy Carter, longest-lived US president and international peace broker die aged 100
Celebrated diplomat and a practitioner of Track-One-and-Half Diplomacy who brokered a peace deal in the Middle East and 39th United States of America (USA) president Jimmy Carter is dead.
The former president died yesterday aged 100 years.
In his time, he was a tireless advocate for global health and human rights,
“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love.” Chip Carter, the former president’s son said in a statement.
“My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.” A Georgia Democrat, Carter was the longest-lived president in US history.
He only served one term in the White House and was soundly beaten by Ronald Reagan in 1980. But Carter spent the decades afterward focused on international relations and human rights, efforts that won him the Nobel peace prize in 2002.
Carter had undergone a series of hospital stays before and his family said on 18 February last year that he had chosen to “spend his remaining time at home”, in hospice care and with loved ones.
The decision had “the full support of his family and his medical team.” A family statement read in part.
President Joe Biden yesterday declared January 9, 2025 a national day of mourning, calling on Americans to visit their places of worship to “pay homage” to the late US leader.
Carter’s wife, Rosalynn Carter, died last November, two days after her own transition to hospice care.
The former first lady was 96.
The pair married in 1946 and the former president attended her memorial service, traveling from the couple’s longtime home in Plains, Georgia, to the Glenn Memorial church in Atlanta.
The Carters’ eldest grandchild, Jason Carter, had said in a media interview in June this year that the former president was not awake every day but was “experiencing the world as best he can” as his days were coming to an end.
On the international stage, he helped to broker an historic peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, but he struggled to deal with the Iran hostage crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
After a single term in office, he was swept aside by Republican Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election, winning just six states
Having left the White House, Carter did much to restore his reputation: becoming a tireless worker for peace, the environment and human rights, for which he was recognised with a Nobel Peace Prize.
The longest-lived president in US history, he celebrated his 100th birthday in October 2024. He had been treated for cancer and had spent the last 19 months in hospice care.
James Earl Carter Jr was born on 1 October 1924 in the small town of Plains, Georgia, the eldest of four children.
His segregationist father had started the family peanut business, and his mother, Lillian, was a registered nurse.
Carter’s experience of the Great Depression and staunch Baptist faith underpinned his political philosophy.
A star basketball player in high school, he went on to spend seven years in the US Navy – during which time he married Rosalynn, a friend of his sister – and became a submarine officer. But on the death of his father in 1953, he returned to run the ailing family farm.
The first year’s crop failed through drought, but Carter turned the business around and made himself wealthy in the process.
