Looking at the 39th president’s legacy in Los Angeles and around the world

Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States and the longest-lived American president in history, died on Sunday at the age of 100. Carter was famously a peanut farmer born and raised in Plains, Georgia. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy during World War II where he learned to fly seaplanes and served on battleships and submarines. He became a civil rights activist and served in the Georgia senate and as governor of Georgia. Joe Biden was the first senator to endorse Carter’s bid for president and he defeated Gerald Ford in 1976. His years in office coincided with an energy crisis, the meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and a 444-day hostage crisis in Iran.

After returning to Georgia, Carter established a human rights foundation and won the Nobel Peace Prize. He wrote several books and won two Grammy awards for his spoken word albums. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter traveled the world as goodwill ambassadors for the United States. Well into his 90s Carter had a regular engagement speaking at the Maranatha Baptist Church, where admirers would line up before dawn to get a seat.

One of the ex-president’s greatest legacies in L.A. are the homes he and wife Rosalynn (who died in 2023) helped build, and the thousands more their work inspired, through Habitat For Humanity. The couple spent a week each year building houses for needy families starting in 1984.

Habitat has completed more than 35 work projects to help people build their own affordable homes with aid from the organization. Carter told reporters that the couple get “more out of it than we put into it.” Recipients put in over 100 hours of hands-on construction and other work for the organization to qualify for homes that the organization was selling for about the same price families were paying in rent.

In 1995, the Carters helped build 26 new homes in Watts. They later noted that original residents stayed in the homes for many years and hoped that they would be passed down through generations. Celebrities would pitch in on occasion, including Patricia Arquette, Ed Begley, and Bo Derek, who spent five days building a house in Wilmington. When Brad Pitt showed up to a Habitat site in India, a massive crowd showed up and work had to stop temporarily. Cher designated proceeds from a huge sale of her collections to go to the organization.

In 2001, the group turned an abandoned railroad right-of-way in Wilmington into 26 new homes, and in 2007, the organization chose L.A. as the host city for the “Jimmy Carter Work Project,” a five-day event where the Carters joined hundreds of volunteers at Vermont and 112th Street to build 14 townhomes and a playground called Vermont Village before starting on 16 homes in San Pedro. Volunteers fanned out to make repairs on 70 other homes of low-income families all over the city.

Habitat for Humanity has built more than 1,000 homes in L.A., half of those just in the last decade. Today, the group is at work from Lancaster to Long Beach, creating affordable housing. Their current projects include Washington Villas, an eco-friendly group of townhomes with solar panels and recycled insulation, the largest project in the group’s history. Getting involved as a volunteer would be a fitting tribute to President Carter, or just shop at one of their Habitat ReStores and think of the former president as you shop.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter Passes Away at 100

Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States and winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, died peacefully Sunday, Dec. 29, at his home in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family. He was 100, the longest-lived president in U.S. history.

President Carter is survived by his children — Jack, Chip, Jeff, and Amy; 11 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Rosalynn, and one grandchild.

“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” said Chip Carter, the former president’s son. “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.”

There will be public observances in Atlanta and Washington, D.C., followed by a private interment in Plains, Georgia. The final arrangements for President Carter’s state funeral, including all public events and motorcade routes, are still pending. The schedule will be released by the Joint Task Force-National Capital Region at https://jtfncr.mdw.army.mil/statefunerals/.

Members of the public are encouraged to visit the official tribute website to the life of President Carter at www.jimmycartertribute.org. This site includes the official online condolence book as well as print and visual biographical materials commemorating his life.

The Carter family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to The Carter Center, 453 John Lewis Freedom Parkway N.E., Atlanta, GA 30307.

FOR JIMMY CARTER, FORMER US PRESIDENT.

Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, decided to enter hospice care at the age of 100 after a series of brief hospital stays.

The Carter Center announced that he would spend his remaining days at home with his family, choosing to forego further medical treatment in favor of hospice care. This decision reflects Carter’s desire to be surrounded by loved ones in his final days.

Remembering Jimmy Carter: Nation’s longest-lived former president dies at 100

Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, has died at the age of 100 on Sunday, Dec. 29 at his home in Plains, Georgia.

Carter’s death came after a February 2023 announcement that he had decided to enter hospice care and spend his remaining time at home with family after a series of short hospital stays.

As reaction poured in from around the world, President Joe Biden mourned Carter’s death, saying the world lost an “extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian” and he lost a dear friend. Biden cited Carter’s compassion and moral clarity, his work to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless and advocacy for the disadvantaged as an example for others.

“To all of the young people in this nation and for anyone in search of what it means to live a life of purpose and meaning – the good life – study Jimmy Carter, a man of principle, faith, and humility,” Biden said in a statement. “He showed that we are a great nation because we are a good people – decent and honorable, courageous and compassionate, humble and strong.”

Biden said he is ordering a state funeral for Carter in Washington on Jan. 9. Biden also declared Jan. 9 as a National Day of Mourning across the U.S.

Biden also ordered U.S. flags to fly at half-staff for 30 days from Sunday.

Born on Oct. 1, 1924, Carter grew up on a peanut farm and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. In the Navy, he eventually served on submarines and rose to the rank of lieutenant. The Navy commissioned a nuclear-powered submarine in 2005, naming it the USS Jimmy Carter.

He was elected to the Georgia State Senate in 1962 and was a little-known Georgia governor when he began his bid for the presidency ahead of the 1976 election. He went on to defeat Gerald Ford, capitalizing as a Washington outsider in the wake of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal that drove Richard Nixon from office in 1974.

Carter served a single, tumultuous term and was defeated by Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980, a landslide loss that ultimately paved the way for his decades of global advocacy for democracy, public health and human rights via The Carter Center.