Former United States president Jimmy Carter became the only American president to ever reach the centennial mark as he celebrated his 100th birthday on Tuesday.
The former peanut farmer and one-time Georgia governor, known for a strong sense of modest decency, is set to celebrate his milestone in Plains, Georgia — a rural hamlet with a population of approximately 600 — over 19 months after announcing he was going into hospice care.
The Democratic ex-president will spend his birthday in the home he and his late wife Rosalynn had built in Plains in the 1960s as he will no longer be regularly appearing in public.
It will include a lunch with some 20 members of his extended family, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
On Tuesday, the school will hold not just an evening concert featuring local and other musicians but also a naturalisation ceremony for 100 new US citizens.
The flyover, which includes four Navy F-18s, according to Stuckey, is particularly fitting since Carter worked on the Navy’s nuclear submarine program, rising to the rank of lieutenant. He should be able to see it from home.
Tributes for the former US leader have already begun pouring in, with President Joe Biden calling Carter “a moral force for our nation and the world” in a video statement on CBS over the weekend.
“Your commitment to a better world, and your unwavering belief in the power of human goodness continues to be a guiding light for all of us,” Biden said.
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.
In Plains, far more yard signs support Republican Donald Trump than Harris. But it is also not uncommon to see a sign celebrating Carter’s centennial birthday next to one supporting Trump.
