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Jimmy Carter, the 39th US president who later won the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work, has died at the age of 100, the Carter Center announced Sunday.
He died peacefully on Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family, the human rights organization he founded said in a statement.
Carter was the longest-serving president in United States history, having celebrated his 100th birthday on October 1 of this year.
His death came more than a year after his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter, died in November 2023, and more than a year and a half after the ailing former president entered hospice care, in February 2023 .
“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights and selfless love,” Chip Carter, the former president’s son, said Sunday.
This announcement comes just weeks before the start of his second term in the White House. The Carter Center said in October that Carter, a lifelong Democrat, cast an absentee ballot for Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent.
US President Joe Biden joined a flood of tributes, saying Carter “saved, improved and changed the lives of people all over the world”.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform that “the challenges Jimmy faced as president came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans.” For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude.
CarterIran’s presidency has been marked by soaring inflation and an Iran hostage crisis. The Democrat lost re-election to Republican Ronald Reagan in a landslide in 1980.
However, in the decades since he left office, Carter has garnered widespread admiration for his extensive humanitarian work at home and abroad. He founded the Carter Centerthe influential pro-democracy and human rights organization, and became one of the most prominent volunteers for Habitat for Humanity, the affordable housing charity.
Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 “for undertaking peace negotiations, campaigning for human rights, and working for social welfare.”
Carter disappeared from public view in the years before his death. He traveled to Washington in 2018 to attend the state funeral of George HW Bush and supported Biden for president in 2020 with an audio message broadcast at the Democratic National Convention.
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited the Carters at their home in 2021. The Bidens attended a memorial service for Rosalynn Carter, alongside the former president, at Emory University in Atlanta in November 2023.
The Carter Center said in February 2023 that “after a series of short hospital stays,” the former president decided to forgo medical care and undergo palliative treatment at home. Carter had undergone treatment for cancer and suffered several falls in recent years.
In May 2024, Jason Carter claimed that his grandfather was “really physically limited” and “coming to the end.” He also praised the former president’s religious beliefs, saying: “There’s a part of this journey of faith that you can only experience at the very end and I think he’s been there in this space. »
After losing his re-election bid in 1980, Carter returned to a modest two-bedroom ranch in the small town of Plains, Georgia, where the local population is about 800 people, and he taught school in Sunday at the local church for the rest of his career. its 90s.
The former president and his wife were born and raised in the Plains.
Jimmy Carter will be buried in a private ceremony in the small city – about 150 miles south of Atlanta – after a state funeral in Washington and a public event in Atlanta, the Carter Center announced Sunday.
