Former President Jimmy Carter packed a lot of achievements and altruism into his nearly 100 years of life, but he faced quite a few difficulties, too, from political problems turning personal to family tragedy.
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00:00Former President Jimmy Carter packed a lot of achievements into his 100 years of life,
00:04but he faced quite a few difficulties, too, from political problems turning personal to
00:09family tragedy.
00:10Jimmy Carter was obviously well-known for being president from 1977 to 1981. He also
00:15had a late-life career as a humanitarian, working closely with organizations including
00:19Habitat for Humanity. Another admirable aspect of his life was just how close he was with
00:24his wife, Rosalyn. But their marriage did have a rough patch or two.
00:27Jimmy became a naval officer shortly before their marriage in 1946. In that, Rosalyn saw
00:32an opportunity. She could leave their small Georgia hometown and see the world. As she
00:36wrote in her 1984 memoir, First Lady from Plains,
00:39"...I loved our life in the Navy. I didn't want to live in Plains. I had left there,
00:43moved on."
00:44Things changed in 1953, though. Jimmy's father died, and he was faced with a choice — continue
00:49his career in the Navy or move back to Georgia and run the family's peanut farm. He settled
00:53on going back to the farm and didn't consult Rosalyn. He later came to regret making such
00:58a huge decision without Rosalyn's inputs. But that didn't change what happened. Rosalyn
01:02wrote,
01:03"...I argued, I cried, I even screamed at him. I thought the best part of my life had
01:06ended."
01:07During their trip back to Georgia, Rosalyn didn't talk to her husband at all, only responding
01:10to him through their son. In the decades following that tension, their relationship blossomed,
01:15becoming what Jimmy told the Associated Press was a
01:17"...full partnership that they could be proud of."
01:20Jimmy Carter was 13 years older than his brother Billy. In the former president's memoir, Keeping
01:24Faith, he wrote that he and Billy hardly knew each other until Jimmy had returned
01:28from his stint in the Navy. Nevertheless, the two seemed close as adults, and as Jimmy
01:31began his presidential campaign, Billy found himself not only in the spotlight, but thriving
01:35in it.
01:36"...I don't tell the president how to run the country, he doesn't tell me how to run
01:39my life."
01:40After becoming president, Jimmy was concerned by the media attention, writing in his diary
01:44in 1977,
01:45"...I'm afraid that he might take something that's very attractive, but then in a year
01:48or so it would be gone and he won't have any stability in his life."
01:52Jimmy's concerns turned out to be pretty well-founded, with the press coming to find
01:55Billy sort of sketchy. In particular, after a diplomatic trip to Libya, Billy made comments
02:00to the press that were perceived as anti-Semitic. The public turned on him in an instant, viewing
02:04his behavior as peculiar rather than charming, or painting his activities as actively harmful.
02:10Jimmy was suddenly inundated with questions, and the family worried when Billy acknowledged
02:13his alcoholism. While Jimmy remained proud of his brother for seeking treatment, he also
02:17wrote that the whole thing was hard. Billy died in 1988, well before his older brother.
02:23There are lots of factors one could point to for Jimmy Carter's 1980 election loss to
02:27Ronald Reagan, but one near the top of the list would have to be the Iran hostage crisis.
02:32In November 1979, the American embassy in Tehran was seized by students in the wake
02:36of the revolution that overthrew the Shah. More than 50 Americans were held hostage for
02:40over a year. Carter's administration tried to defuse the situation, but the entire incident
02:45— particularly military failures like the failed and expensive rescue mission
02:49Operation Eagle Claw — made the president and his advisers look ineffective.
02:53Eight Americans were killed when two U.S. aircraft
02:56collided as the American volunteers were being pulled out of a remote area.
03:00In his memoir, Carter explained that the crisis was the cause of some of the most difficult times
03:04in his entire life. He wrote in his diary,
03:06"[These last few days have been among the worst I've ever spent in the White House.]
03:09The hostages were on his mind at all hours, no matter what else he was working on at the time."
03:14Even though this was a diplomatic matter and he technically had no personal connection to
03:18the hostages, he still wrote,
03:19"[I also had deep private feelings that were almost overwhelming.]
03:22He'd read through all of the letters that came from the hostages at the embassy,
03:25learned about their lives and careers, and met personally with their families. For him,
03:29this was far beyond some dispassionate diplomatic incident,
03:32but closer to a personal tragedy that he desperately wanted to put right."
03:35Most of the hostages weren't released until January 20, 1981, the day Carter left office.
03:41Burt Lance was a banker from Georgia and a close friend of Jimmy Carter's from before
03:46his presidency. After he took office, Carter chose Lance to head up the Office of Management
03:50and Budget. Despite Lance's friendly attitude, criticism started flying his way fairly quickly.
03:55Most notably, he was accused of misusing bank funds for personal reasons. He ultimately
03:59resigned from his post after less than a year. Carter was far from pleased about the whole thing,
04:04though, explaining in Keeping Faith that he not only depended heavily on Lance's support,
04:08but also saw him as a very close friend. His writings are critical of the press,
04:11theorizing that reporters were riding high after Watergate. He believed that they were
04:15on the hunt for anything scandalous, regardless of whether it was true or not. Lance just happened
04:20to be the one they targeted. Carter experienced a rare sleepless night over the ordeal, and went
04:24through some rough meetings. While Lance agreed that resignation was a smart move, his wife,
04:28LaBelle, disagreed harshly. As Carter explained,
04:31"[LaBelle called to say that, in accepting his resignation, I had betrayed my best friend.]
04:35Carter understood where she was coming from and noted the call caused,
04:38"...probably one of the worst days I've ever spent."
04:42In December 2015, Jimmy Carter's 28-year-old grandson, Jeremy Carter, died of a heart attack.
04:48When his mother checked on him, his heart had stopped beating.
04:52In a devastating blog post, Jeremy's brother Josh wrote about his fear and grief in raw detail,
04:56from his mother performing CPR on Jeremy after finding that his heart had stopped,
05:00to seeing him in the ER, hooked up to IVs for the entire night.
05:03Josh recounted that Jeremy's heart stopped again, with 10 minutes of CPR doing nothing
05:07to restart it. Josh wrote,
05:09"...just this one time can the facts not be true? I want the universe to lie to me,
05:13just this once."
05:14The cause of the heart attack has been kept private, though Josh mentioned that his brother
05:18had gone through medical tests in recent months. Jeremy had been prescribed vitamins to help him
05:22eat and stop his legs from aching, but there was no mention of a problem with his heart.
05:25Jimmy announced the tragedy in a Sunday School lecture. NBC News reported that Jimmy said
05:30Jeremy was a very special child and recounted a conversation they'd had years earlier on a
05:34ski trip. He said Jeremy asked,
05:36"...Papa, are you going to die someday? When you die, can we still come to this place?"
05:42In late May 2023, the Carter Center released a statement from the family saying that Rosalynn
05:46Carter had been diagnosed with dementia. It read, in part,
05:50"...she continues to live happily at home with her husband,
05:52enjoying spring and plains, and visits with loved ones."
05:55In August of that year, Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter's grandson, Josh Carter,
05:59gave an interview to People magazine saying that both of them were enjoying
06:02their time together and with their family. Both of them were, for the most part,
06:05still very much themselves. And even if Rosalynn was having a hard time with her memory,
06:09Josh noted that it must have been hard for Jimmy to be by the side of his life's love
06:13while she lost her memory, and he also added,
06:15"...they are still holding hands. It's just amazing."
06:17On November 17, 2023, the Carter Center released another statement that the former First Lady had
06:22entered hospice care. Two days later, on November 19, they announced Rosalynn Carter had died at
06:27the age of 96, surrounded by her family. Chip Carter later spoke to the press about how hard
06:32it had been for his father, recounting that the night before, Jimmy had sat at Rosalynn's side,
06:37telling her how much he loved her and holding her hand, before asking to have time alone with her.
06:41Chip said,
06:41"...I'm sure he was praying."
06:43The next morning, after Rosalynn's death, Jimmy asked once again that he be left alone with his
06:47wife. The two of them were a devoted couple, and excerpts from their letters provide a picture of
06:51a deeply affectionate partnership. Their daughter, Amy, read one at her funeral.
06:55"...but when I see you, I fall in love with you all over again. Does that seem strange to you?"
07:02Nothing paints the tragedy more clearly than Jimmy's own words, which were included in the
07:06Carter Center's statement. He said,
07:08"...Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished. She gave me wise guidance
07:12and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world,
07:16I always knew somebody loved and supported me."
07:19Jimmy Carter's health has repeatedly been in the news over the past decade or so.
07:23In 2015, it was reported that he was receiving treatment for both liver cancer and melanoma,
07:27yet the former president bounced back from that, announcing he was cancer-free after just a few
07:32months. In the following years, he had a few hospital stays, for various reasons,
07:35including falls and surgeries. On February 18, 2023, the Carter Center released a statement
07:41saying that Jimmy had elected to enter hospice care.
07:43"...we do lift the Carter family lord to you."
07:46His son, Chip Carter, later told the press that the decision filled his father with doubts that
07:50he'd never expected. Most notably, he was concerned what would happen if he died before
07:54his wife, Rosalynn. Chip explained,
07:56"...Dad told me several times over the last nine months that he'd always thought he would
08:00outlive Mom and protect her until she passed, but that now he wasn't sure that was going to happen,
08:04and that upset him."
08:05In the end, the former president lived considerably longer than most expected.
08:09Hospice patients generally pass within six months of entering care,
08:12but Carter surpassed that statistic, and then some.
08:15Jimmy Carter will be fondly recalled as having one of the greatest post-presidency lives ever,
08:19and his Habitat for Humanity legacy will carry on.