Jimmy Carter celebrated his 100th birthday on Tuesday — the first-ever US president to reach the century mark and another extraordinary milestone for the one-time peanut farmer who found his way to the White House.
“We are thrilled that the president from this little town is going to be the only president to ever live to be 100 years old,” Jill Stuckey, superintendent of the National Park Service’s Jimmy Carter historical site and longtime family friend, told AFP.
No longer regularly appearing in public, the Democratic ex-president spent his birthday in the home he and his late wife Rosalynn had built in Plains in the 1960s.
It includes a lunch with some 20 members of his extended family, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
President Joe Biden, in a video posted on his official X account, hailed Carter as a “beloved friend” and “one of the most influential statesmen” in US history.
“Your hopeful vision of our country, your commitment to a better world, and your unwavering belief in the power of human goodness continue to be a guiding light for all of us,” he said.
First Lady Jill Biden’s office said a display would be set up on the White House lawn with the message “Happy Birthday President Carter.”
Beyond serving as president for a single term from 1977 to 1981, Carter worked as a global mediator, rights activist, and elder statesman, founding the well-respected Carter Center in 1982 to pursue his vision of world diplomacy.
His presidency included the 1978 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, the establishment of diplomatic relations with China following a rapprochement initiated by President Richard Nixon, and the return of control of the Panama Canal to Panama.
But his administration hit numerous snags, including the Iran hostage crisis and a renewed oil crisis in 1979-1980, which saw Ronald Regan sweep into power in a landslide.