Jimmy Carter

== Personal life ==
[[File:Former US President Jimmy Carter Builds Homes Despite Black Eye From Fall.webm|thumb|alt=Video of Carter helping build a house.|Carter building homes despite having a black eye from a fall, 2019]]
Carter's hobbies include painting,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.artfixdaily.com/news_feed/2017/06/27/4532-jimmy-carter-painting-brings-over-half-million-dollars-at-auction|title=Jimmy Carter Painting Brings Over Half Million Dollars At Auction|date=June 27, 2017|access-date=September 7, 2021|archive-date=September 7, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210907184128/https://www.artfixdaily.com/news_feed/2017/06/27/4532-jimmy-carter-painting-brings-over-half-million-dollars-at-auction|url-status=live}}</ref> [[fly fishing]], woodworking, cycling, tennis, and skiing.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2002/carter-bio.html |title=Jimmy Carter – Biographical |publisher=The Nobel Foundation |access-date=December 28, 2014 |archive-date=February 15, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150215182218/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2002/carter-bio.html |url-status=live }}</ref> He also has an interest in poetry, particularly the works of [[Dylan Thomas]].<ref name="Thomas">{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-15661342 |title=Jimmy Carter to welcome visitors to Dylan Thomas house |website=BBC News |publisher=BBC |date=November 9, 2011 |access-date=November 11, 2015 |archive-date=September 17, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140917030101/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-15661342 |url-status=live }}</ref> During a state visit to the UK in 1977, Carter suggested that Thomas should have a memorial in [[Poets' Corner]] at [[Westminster Abbey]];<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20068169,00.html |title=Jimmy Carter's Crusade for Dylan Thomas Wins a Supporter—his Grateful Widow, Caitlin |website=People |first=M.J. |last=Wilson |date=June 27, 1977 |access-date=November 11, 2015 |archive-date=December 22, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222125301/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20068169,00.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> this later came to fruition in 1982.<ref name="Thomas" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/dylan-thomas |title=Dylan Thomas |website=Westminster Abbey |publisher=The Dean and Chapter of Westminster |year=2015 |access-date=November 11, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222105450/http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/dylan-thomas |archive-date=December 22, 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Carter was a personal friend of [[Elvis Presley]], whom he and Rosalynn met on June 30, 1973, before Presley was to perform onstage in Atlanta.<ref>{{cite web |title=Elvis Presley and Politics |url=http://www.neatorama.com/2015/07/15/Elvis-Presley-and-Politics/ |website=Neatorama |date=July 15, 2015 |access-date=February 20, 2018}}</ref> They remained in contact by telephone two months before Presley's sudden death in August 1977. Carter later recalled an abrupt phone call received in June 1977 from Presley who sought a presidential pardon from Carter, to help [[George Klein (DJ)|George Klein]]'s criminal case; at the time Klein had been indicted for only mail fraud, and was later found guilty of conspiracy.<ref>{{cite book |title=Elvis Presley, Reluctant Rebel: His Life and Our Times |date=2011 |publisher=David Luhrssen and Glen Jeansonne |page=195 |url={{GBurl|id=kUXPpQAhsCkC|q=elvis presley jimmy carter george klein|p=195}} |isbn=978-0-313-35904-0 |access-date=February 20, 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Nash |first1=Alanna |title=Elvis and the Memphis Mafia |url={{GBurl|id=7jDBAgAAQBAJ|q=elvis presley jimmy carter call|pg=PT607}} |isbn=978-1-84513-759-5 |date=February 1, 2012 |publisher=Aurum |access-date=February 20, 2018 }}</ref> According to Carter, Presley was almost incoherent because of barbiturates; although he phoned the White House several times again, this was the last time they spoke.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Takes: Elvis Presley on the Line |url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/double-take/takes-elvis-presley-on-the-line |magazine=The New Yorker |date=August 16, 2011 |author=Erin Overbey |author-link=Erin Overbey |access-date=February 20, 2018 |archive-date=February 20, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180220212448/https://www.newyorker.com/books/double-take/takes-elvis-presley-on-the-line |url-status=live }}</ref> The day after Presley's death, Carter issued a statement and explained how he had "changed the face of American popular culture".<ref>{{cite web |title=Statement by the President on the Death of Elvis Presley |url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=7969/ |website=The American Presidency Project |last1=Peters |first1=Gerhard |last2=Woolley |first2=John T. |access-date=February 20, 2018 |archive-date=November 1, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171101190121/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=7969%2F |url-status=live }}</ref>

Carter filed a report with both the International UFO Bureau and the [[National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena]],<ref>{{cite news|first=Thomas|last=O'Toole|title=UFO Over Georgia? Jimmy Logged One|date=April 30, 1977|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/04/30/ufo-over-georgia-jimmy-logged-one/080ef1c3-6ff3-41a9-a1e4-a37c54b5cbca/|access-date=October 1, 2021|archive-date=November 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109013122/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/04/30/ufo-over-georgia-jimmy-logged-one/080ef1c3-6ff3-41a9-a1e4-a37c54b5cbca/|url-status=live}}</ref> stating that [[Jimmy Carter UFO incident|he sighted an unidentified flying object]] in October 1969.<ref>{{cite news|first=Ed|last=Kilgore|title=Jimmy Carter Saw a UFO on This Day in 1973|date=September 18, 2019|work=New York|url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/09/jimmy-carter-saw-a-ufo-on-this-day-in-1973.html|access-date=October 1, 2021|archive-date=October 1, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211001025315/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/09/jimmy-carter-saw-a-ufo-on-this-day-in-1973.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nicap.org/waves/CarterSightingRptOct1969.pdf|title=Official report by Carter to the International UFO Bureau|access-date=September 17, 2021|archive-date=September 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210913190524/http://www.nicap.org/waves/CarterSightingRptOct1969.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=Joseph|last=Egelhof|title=Jimmy Carter's UFO|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/86289659/|access-date=October 1, 2021|work=Boston Evening Globe|page=15|date=November 11, 1977|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|archive-date=March 21, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220321155347/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/86289659/the-boston-globe/|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Beliefs ===
From a young age, Carter showed a deep commitment to [[evangelical Christianity]].<ref name="NYT baptist">[[Somini Sengupta]], [https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/21/us/carter-sadly-turns-back-on-national-baptist-body.html "Carter Sadly Turns Back on National Baptist Body"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141217225008/http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/21/us/carter-sadly-turns-back-on-national-baptist-body.html |date=December 17, 2014 }}, ''The New York Times'', October 21, 2000. Retrieved August 4, 2008.</ref><ref name="Balmer-2023">{{Cite web |last=Balmer |first=Randall |author-link=Randall Balmer |date=February 22, 2023 |title=Jimmy Carter Was America's Evangelical-in-Chief |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/02/22/jimmy-carter-foreign-policy-america-evangelical-christianity/ |access-date=March 16, 2023 |website=Foreign Policy |language=en-US}}</ref> In 1942, Carter became a [[deacon]] and taught Sunday school at Maranatha [[Baptist Church]] in Plains, Georgia.<ref>{{Cite magazine|last1=Burns|first1=Rebecca|date=June 1, 2016|title=Pilgrimage to Plains: The faithful come from around the world to hear Jimmy Carter preach|url=https://www.atlantamagazine.com/great-reads/pilgrimage-to-plains-jimmy-carter/|magazine=Atlanta Magazine|access-date=September 9, 2021|archive-date=October 1, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211001115130/https://www.atlantamagazine.com/great-reads/pilgrimage-to-plains-jimmy-carter/|url-status=live}}</ref> At a private inauguration worship service, the preacher was Nelson Price, the pastor of Roswell Street Baptist Church of Marietta, Georgia.<ref>Hobbs, Herschel H. and Mullins, Edgar Young. (1978). ''The Axioms of Religion''. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press. Revised edition. p. 22. {{ISBN|978-0-8054-1707-4}}.</ref> An evangelical Christian, Carter appealed to voters after the scandals of the [[Presidency of Richard Nixon|Nixon Administration]], and is credited with popularizing the term "[[born again]]" into American [[lexicon]] during the 1976 American presidential campaign.<ref name="Balmer-2023" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Burke |first=Daniel |date=May 20, 2021 |title=Evangelicals and the American Presidency |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/billy-graham-evangelicals-and-american-presidency/ |access-date=March 16, 2023 |website=[[PBS]] |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Haberman |first=Clyde |date=October 28, 2018 |title=Religion and Right-Wing Politics: How Evangelicals Reshaped Elections |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/28/us/religion-politics-evangelicals.html |access-date=March 16, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Green |first=Joshua |date=March 1, 2023 |title=How Evangelical Voters Swung From Carter to Trump |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-evangelical-voters-swung-from-carter-to-trump/2023/03/01/e43a7112-b833-11ed-b0df-8ca14de679ad_story.html |access-date=March 16, 2023 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref> As president, Carter prayed several times a day, and professed that Jesus was the driving force in his life. He was greatly influenced by a sermon he had heard as a young man that asked: "If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"<ref>{{cite book |title=Conversations with Carter |isbn=978-1-55587-801-6 |year=1998 |page=14 |first1=Jimmy |last1=Carter |first2=Don |last2=Richardson |publisher=Lynne Rienner Publishers}}</ref> In 2000, after the [[Southern Baptist Convention]] announced it would no longer permit women to become pastors, he renounced his membership, saying: "I personally feel that women should play an absolutely equal role in service of Christ in the church."<ref name="ABC baptist">{{cite news |title=Jimmy Carter Leaves Southern Baptists |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=95311&page=1 |access-date=October 12, 2022 |work=ABC News |language=en}}</ref> He remained a member of the [[Cooperative Baptist Fellowship]].<ref name="NYT baptist" /> Carter's support for the [[Equal Rights Amendment]]<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://doi.org/10.1525/rac.2014.24.1.100 | doi=10.1525/rac.2014.24.1.100 | title=The Politicization of Family Life: How Headship Became Essential to Evangelical Identity in the Late Twentieth Century | year=2014 | last1=Stasson | first1=Anneke | journal=Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation | volume=24 | pages=100–138 | s2cid=142760970 }}</ref> led many [[evangelical conservatives]] to leave the Democratic Party, contributing to the development of the [[Christian right]] in American politics.<ref>Ellis, Blake A. “An Alternative Politics: Texas Baptists and the Rise of the Christian Right, 1975-1985.” ''The Southwestern Historical Quarterly'', vol. 112, no. 4, 2009, pp. 361–86. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/30242432 JSTOR website] Retrieved May 5, 2023.</ref>

=== Family ===
[[File:Farah Pahlavi and Rosalynn Carter (cropped and retouched).jpg|thumb|alt=The Empress of Iran holding Carter's infant grandson.|[[Farah Pahlavi]], [[Empress of Iran]], holds Jimmy Carter IV while Rosalynn Carter, Caron Carter and Chip Carter watch, January 1978.]]
Carter had three younger siblings, all of whom died of pancreatic cancer: sisters Gloria Spann (1926–1990) and Ruth Stapleton (1929–1983), and brother [[Billy Carter]] (1937–1988).<ref>{{cite news |author=Robert D. Hershey Jr |title=Billy Carter Dies of Cancer at 51; Troubled Brother of a President |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/26/obituaries/billy-carter-dies-of-cancer-at-51-troubled-brother-of-a-president.html |work=The New York Times |date=September 26, 1988 |access-date=July 27, 2011 |archive-date=February 7, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210207130017/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/26/obituaries/billy-carter-dies-of-cancer-at-51-troubled-brother-of-a-president.html |url-status=live }}</ref> He was first cousin to politician [[Hugh Carter]] and a distant cousin to the [[Carter family]] of musicians.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Johnny Cash, the Autobiography|isbn=978-0-00-274080-7|publisher=Harper Collins|first1=John R.|last1=Cash|date=1997}}</ref>
He is related to [[Motown]] founder [[Berry Gordy]] by way of their white great-grandfather James Thomas Gordy, who had a relationship with a black female slave he owned.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://walkoffame.com/berry-gordy/#:~:text=Berry%20Gordy%20I%20was%20the,and%20Carter%20second%20half%2Dcousins|title=Berry Gordy|work=[[Hollywood Walk of Fame]]|date=October 25, 2019 |access-date=March 21, 2022|archive-date=March 5, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220305212554/https://walkoffame.com/berry-gordy/#:~:text=Berry%20Gordy%20I%20was%20the,and%20Carter%20second%20half%2Dcousins|url-status=live}}</ref>

Carter married Rosalynn Smith on July 7, 1946, in the Plains Methodist Church, the church of Rosalynn's family.<ref name="AJC 71st anv">{{cite news |last1=Vejnoska |first1=Jill |title=Happy 71st wedding anniversary Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter! |url=https://www.ajc.com/news/happy-71st-wedding-anniversary-jimmy-and-rosalynn-carter/8gLu5tUWRYN0iKxX4g8mWP/ |work=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |date=July 7, 2017 |access-date=March 31, 2019 |archive-date=April 1, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401022911/https://www.ajc.com/news/happy-71st-wedding-anniversary-jimmy-and-rosalynn-carter/8gLu5tUWRYN0iKxX4g8mWP/ |url-status=live }}</ref> They had three sons, [[Jack Carter (politician)|Jack]], James III, and Donnel; one daughter, [[Amy Carter|Amy]]; nine grandsons (one of whom is deceased), three granddaughters, five great-grandsons, and eight great-granddaughters.<ref name="cartercenter">{{cite web |url=https://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/about_us/biography_of_jimmy_carter |title=Biography of Jimmy Carter |date=July 25, 2018 |access-date=October 13, 2020 |work=Jimmy Carter Library |archive-date=October 18, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201018014719/https://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/about_us/biography_of_jimmy_carter |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Mary Prince (nanny)|Mary Prince]] (an African American woman wrongly convicted of murder, and later pardoned) was their daughter Amy's nanny for most of the period from 1971 until Jimmy Carter's presidency ended.<ref name="Carter2005">{{cite book |author=Jimmy Carter |title=Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis |url=https://archive.org/details/ourendangeredvalcart00cart |url-access=registration |year=2005 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-7432-8457-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ourendangeredvalcart00cart/page/84 84]– |quote=My last book, ''Sharing Good Times'', is dedicated "to Mary Prince, whom we love and cherish." Mary is a wonderful black woman who, as a teenager visiting a small town, was falsely accused of murder and defended by an assigned lawyer whom she first met on the day of the trial, when he advised her to plead guilty, promising a light sentence. She got life imprisonment instead ... A reexamination of the evidence and trial proceedings by the original judge revealed that she was completely innocent, and she was granted a pardon.}}</ref><ref name="glamour1">{{cite web |last=Chabbott |first=Sophia |url=http://www.glamour.com/inspired/blogs/the-conversation/2015/03/the-residence-book |title=The Residence: Meet the Women Behind Presidential Families Kennedy, Johnson, Carter |work=Glamour |date=March 19, 2015 |access-date=May 2, 2015 |quote=Rosalynn Carter, who believed Prince was wrongly convicted, secured a reprieve so Prince could join them in Washington. Prince was later granted a full pardon; to this day she occasionally babysits the Carters' grandkids. |archive-date=May 9, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150509085304/http://www.glamour.com/inspired/blogs/the-conversation/2015/03/the-residence-book |url-status=live }}</ref> Carter had asked to be designated as her [[parole officer]], thus helping to enable her to work in the White House.<ref name="Carter2005" />{{efn|name=Prince01|After working in the Georgia governor's mansion as a [[Trustee#Correctional institution usage|trustee prisoner]], Prince had been returned to prison in 1975 when Carter's term as governor ended, but intervention on her behalf by both Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, with Jimmy Carter asking to be designated as her [[parole officer]], enabled her to be [[paroled|reprieved]] and to work in the White House.<ref name="people1">{{cite magazine |last=Crawford |first=Clare |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20067515,00.html |title=A Story of Love and Rehabilitation: the Ex-Con in the White House |magazine=People |date=March 14, 1977 |access-date=May 3, 2015 |archive-date=June 23, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150623232438/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20067515,00.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Carter2005" /><ref name="glamour1" />}}

The Carters celebrated their 77th anniversary on July 7, 2023. On October 19, 2019, they became the longest-wed presidential couple, having overtaken George and [[Barbara Bush]] at 26,765 days.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/10/18/jimmy-rosalynn-carter-become-longest-married-presidential-couple/4025978002/|title='Still going strong': Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter become longest-married presidential couple|first1=Dustin|last1=Barnes|date=October 19, 2019|access-date=September 7, 2021|website=USA Today|archive-date=November 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101135011/https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/10/18/jimmy-rosalynn-carter-become-longest-married-presidential-couple/4025978002/|url-status=live}}</ref> After Rosalynn's death on November 19, 2023, Carter released the following statement:

{{blockquote|Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished. She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.<ref name="Carter Center death"/>}}

The Carters' eldest son, Jack Carter, was the 2006 Democratic [[2006 United States Senate election in Nevada|nominee for U.S. Senate in Nevada]] and lost to Republican incumbent [[John Ensign]]. Jack's son [[Jason Carter (politician)|Jason Carter]] is a former Georgia state senator,<ref name="NYT 2010-05-11">{{cite news |last=Hulse |first=Carl |title=Veteran House Democrat Loses Seat in Primary |website=The New York Times |date=May 11, 2010 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/us/politics/12elect.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220103/https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/us/politics/12elect.html |archive-date=January 3, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=August 12, 2015}}{{cbignore}}</ref> and in 2014 was the Democratic nominee for [[2014 Georgia gubernatorial election|governor of Georgia]], losing to the Republican incumbent, [[Nathan Deal]]. On December 20, 2015, while teaching a Sunday school class, Carter announced that his 28-year-old grandson Jeremy Carter had died of unspecified causes.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/20/us/jimmy-carter-grandson-death/ |title=Hours after death of grandson, Jimmy Carter reveals the news to his church |first1=Ashley |last1=Fantz |first2=Carma |last2=Hassan |work=CNN|date=December 20, 2015 |access-date=December 21, 2015 |archive-date=December 20, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151220215627/http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/20/us/jimmy-carter-grandson-death/ |url-status=live }}</ref>