\u2018A good \u2019ol Southern gentleman\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\nPlains is a tiny circle of Georgia farmland, a mile in diameter, with its center at the train depot that served as Carter\u2019s 1976 campaign headquarters. About 700 people live here, 150 miles due south of Atlanta, in a place that is a living museum to Carter.<\/p>\n
The general store, once owned by Carter\u2019s Uncle Buddy, sells Carter memorabilia and scoops of peanut butter ice cream. Carter\u2019s boyhood farm is preserved as it was in the 1930s, with no electricity or running water.<\/p>\n
The Jimmy Carter National Historic Site is essentially the entire town, drawing nearly 70,000 visitors a year and $4\u00a0million into the county\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n
Carter has used his post-presidency to support human rights, global health programs and fair elections worldwide through his Carter Center, based in Atlanta. He has helped renovate 4,300 homes in 14 countries for Habitat for Humanity, and with his own hammer and tool belt, he will be working on homes for low-income people in Indiana later this month.<\/p>\n
But it is Plains that defines him.<\/p>\n
After dinner, the Carters step out of Stuckey\u2019s driveway, with two Secret Service agents walking close behind.<\/p>\n
Carter\u2019s gait is a little unsteady these days, three years after a diagnosis of melanoma on his liver and brain. At a 2015 news conference to announce his illness, he seemed to be bidding a stoic farewell, saying he was \u201cperfectly at ease with whatever comes.\u201d<\/p>\n
But now, after radiation and chemotherapy, Carter says he is cancer-free.<\/p>\n
In October, he will become the second president ever to reach 94; George H.W. Bush turned 94 in June. These days, Carter is sharp, funny and reflective.<\/p>\n
The Carters walk every day \u2014 often down Church Street, the main drag through Plains, where they have been walking since the 1920s.<\/p>\n
As they cross Walters Street, Carter sees a couple of teenagers on the sidewalk across the street.<\/p>\n
\u201cHello,\u201d says the former president, with the same big smile that adorns peanut Christmas ornaments in the general store.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey,\u201d says a girl in a jean skirt, greeting him with a cheerful wave.<\/p>\n
The two 15-year-olds say people in Plains think of the Carters as neighbors and friends, just like anybody else.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up in church with him,\u201d says Maya Wynn. \u201cHe\u2019s a nice guy, just like a regular person.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a good \u2019ol Southern gentleman,\u201d says David Lane.<\/p>\n
Carter says this place formed him, seeding his beliefs about racial equality. His farmhouse youth during the Great Depression made him unpretentious and frugal. His friends, maybe only half-joking, describe Carter as \u201ctight as a tick.\u201d<\/p>\n
That no-frills sensibility, endearing since he left Washington, didn\u2019t work as well in the White House. Many people thought Carter scrubbed some of the luster off the presidency by carrying his own suitcases onto Air Force One and refusing to have \u201cHail to the Chief\u201d played.<\/p>\n
Stuart E. Eizenstat, a Carter aide and biographer, said Carter\u2019s edict eliminating drivers for top staff members backfired. It meant that top officials were driving instead of reading and working for an hour or two every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t feel suited to the grandeur,\u201d Eizenstat said. \u201cPlains is really part of his DNA. He carried it into the White House, and he carried it out of the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carter\u2019s presidency \u2014 from 1977 to 1981 \u2014 is often remembered for long lines at gas stations and the Iran hostage crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cI may have overemphasized the plight of the hostages when I was in my final year,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I was so obsessed with them personally, and with their families, that I wanted to do anything to get them home safely, which I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he regrets not doing more to unify the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n
When Carter looks back at his presidency, he says he is most proud of \u201ckeeping the peace and supporting human rights,\u201d the Camp David accords that brokered peace between Israel and Egypt, and his work to normalize relations with China. In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always told the truth,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Carter has been notably quiet about President Trump. But on this night, two years into Trump\u2019s term, he\u2019s not holding back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s a disaster,\u201d Carter says. \u201cIn human rights and taking care of people and treating people equal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe worst is that he is not telling the truth, and that just hurts everything,\u201d Rosalynn says.<\/p>\n
Carter says his father taught him that truthfulness matters. He said that was reinforced at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he said students are expelled for telling even the smallest lie.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s been an attitude of ignorance toward the truth by President Trump,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Carter says he thinks the Supreme Court\u2019s Citizens United<\/i> decision has \u201cchanged our political system from a democracy to an oligarchy. Money is now preeminent. I mean, it\u2019s just gone to hell now.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says he believes that the nation\u2019s \u201cethical and moral values\u201d are still intact and that Americans eventually will \u201creturn to what\u2019s right and what\u2019s wrong, and what\u2019s decent and what\u2019s indecent, and what\u2019s truthful and what\u2019s lies.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, he says, \u201cI doubt if it happens in my lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Church Street, Carter points out the mayor\u2019s house with his left hand while he holds Rosalynn\u2019s with his right.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother and father lived in that brick one,\u201d he says, gesturing toward a small house across the street. \u201cWe use it as an office now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s Dr. Logan\u2019s over here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every house has a story. Generations of them. Cracked birdbaths and rocking chairs on somebody\u2019s great-grandmother\u2019s porch. Carter knows them all.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Oscar Williams lived here; his family was my competitor in the warehouse business.\u201d<\/p>\n
He points out the Plains United Methodist Church, where he spotted young Eleanor Rosalynn Smith one evening when he was home from the Naval Academy.<\/p>\n
He asked her out. They went to a movie, and the next morning he told his mother he was going to marry Rosalynn.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know that for years,\u201d she says with a smile.<\/p>\n
They are asked if there is anything they want but don\u2019t have.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t think of anything,\u201d Carter says, turning to Rosalynn. \u201cAnd you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I\u2019m happy,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel at home here,\u201d Carter says. \u201cAnd the folks in town, when we need it, they take care of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018A heart of service\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\nEvery other Sunday morning, Carter teaches Sunday school at the Maranatha Baptist Church on the edge of town, and people line up the night before to get a seat.<\/p>\n
This Sunday morning happens to be his 800th lesson since he left the White House.<\/p>\n
He walks in wearing a blazer too big through the shoulders, a striped shirt and a turquoise bolo tie. He asks where people have come from, and from the pews they call out at least 20 states, Canada, Kenya, China and Denmark.<\/p>\n
He tells the congregation that he\u2019s planning a trip to Montana to go fishing with his friend Ted Turner, and that he\u2019s going to ride in his son\u2019s autogiro \u2014 a sort of mini-helicopter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still fairly active,\u201d he says, and everyone laughs.<\/p>\n
He talks about living a purposeful life, but also about finding enough time for rest and reflection. Then he and Rosalynn pose for photos with every person who wants one, including Steven and Joanna Raley, who came from Annandale, Va., with their 3-month-old son, Jackson Carter Raley.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want our children to grow up with a heart of service like President Carter,\u201d says Steven, who works on Navy submarines, as Carter once did.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the reasons we named our son after President Carter is how humble he is,\u201d Joanna says.<\/p>\n
Carter holds the baby and beams for the camera.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the name,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
A modest life<\/strong><\/p>\nWhen they reach their property, the Carters turn right off the sidewalk and cut across the wide lawn toward their house.<\/p>\n
Carter stops to point out a tall magnolia that was transplanted from a sprout taken from a tree that Andrew Jackson planted on the White House lawn.<\/p>\n
They walk past a pond, which Carter helped dig and where he now works on his fly-fishing technique. They point out a willow tree at the pond\u2019s edge, on a gentle sloping lawn, where they will be buried in graves marked by simple stones.<\/p>\n
They know their graves will draw tourists and boost the Plains economy.<\/p>\n
Their one-story house sits behind a government-owned fence that once surrounded Richard Nixon\u2019s house in Key Biscayne, Fla. The Carters already have deeded the property to the National Park Service, which will one day turn it into a museum.<\/p>\n
Their house is dated, but homey and comfortable, with a rustic living room and a small kitchen. A cooler bearing the presidential seal sits on the floor in the kitchen \u2014 Carter says they use it for leftovers.<\/p>\n
In a remodel not long ago, the couple knocked down a bedroom wall themselves. \u201cBy that time, we had worked with Habitat so much that it was just second-nature,\u201d Rosalynn says.<\/p>\n
Rosalynn Carter practices tai chi and meditates in the mornings, while her husband writes in his study or swims in the pool. He also builds furniture and paints in the garage; the paint is still wet on a portrait of a cardinal that will be their Christmas card this year.<\/p>\n
They watch Atlanta Braves games or \u201cLaw and Order.\u201d Carter just finished reading \u201cThe Innovators\u201d by Walter Isaacson. They have no chef and they cook for themselves, often together. They make their own yogurt.<\/p>\n
On this summer morning, Rosalynn mixes pancake batter and sprinkles in blueberries grown on their land.<\/p>\n
Carter cooks them on the griddle.<\/p>\n
Then he does the dishes.<\/p>\n
The Washington Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Story by Kevin Sullivan and Mary Jordan, Photos by Matt McClain, Agust 17, 2018 Jimmy Carter shuns riches, lives modestly in his Georgia hometown PLAINS, Ga. Jimmy Carter finishes his Saturday night dinner, salmon and broccoli casserole on a paper plate, flashes his famous toothy grin and calls playfully to his wife of 72 years, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4176"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4176"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4195,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4176\/revisions\/4195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}