While a president may be leaving the stately home at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for the last time, they might not necessarily be leaving behind the opulent lifestyle.
Unless you’re Jimmy Carter, a former president.
Since turning over the presidency to Ronald Reagan in 1981, 97-year-old Jimmy Carter, who is currently the oldest living former president, has led a relatively simple life.
Carter and his wife Rosalynn, 94, who will commemorate their 76th wedding anniversary this year, returned to the Plains, Georgia, house they built in the 1960s after serving just one term.
James Earl Carter, Jr. was born on October 1st, 1924 in Plains, Georgia to Bessie Lillian and James Earl Carter Sr.
Carter’s father was an effective businessman and land investor in the small town of Plains, which had about 600 residents. Carter was born at the Wise Sanitarium, where his mother served as a nurse.
Like his father, who served in the U.S. military, Carter attended the local high school from 1937 to 1941. S. During World War I, he had aspirations of joining the Army Quartermaster Corps.
After switching from Georgia Southwestern College to Georgia Institute of Technology, he was later accepted into the Naval Academy in 1943.
He first met Rosalynn through his sister Ruth while he was a student at the Naval Academy.
According to People, he stated this in the book What Makes a Marriage Last by Phil Donahue and Marlo Thomas. “I just felt compatible with her.”.
Following their date to see a movie, the rest is history!
Shortly after Carter received his diploma from the Naval Academy, they got married in 1946.
The young couple had to move around the nation for the following few years as Carter was given deployments in the Atlantic or Pacific fleets.
Carter’s father fell ill and passed away from cancer in July 1953, just as the Navy was planning to build its first nuclear-powered submarine, which Carter was going to be a part of.
Carter eventually made the decision to leave the Navy with the rank of lieutenant in order to carry on the family’s peanut farming operation, even though it was a difficult one.
They already had three children when he and Rosalynn returned to Plains to start a family.
Carter built his family a ranch-style home in 1961 to accommodate their expanding family (their fourth child was born in 1967) and their need for a residence.
The house, which Zillow estimates is currently valued at $209,996, was ideal for the Carters before Jimmy got involved in politics and it remained that way after he left office.
After leaving the White House, the former 39th president didn’t immediately move into a new house or ink lucrative book deals. In Georgia’s Plains, he returned home.
He went back to his hometown, according to the Washington Post, because he didn’t want to “capitalize financially on being in the White House. “.
The 38th president, Gerald Ford, is credited with being the first to seize such chances, but “Carter did the opposite. “.
But a lot of his successors and their spouses have benefited from post-presidential popularity, which Carter accepts without complaint. He simply isn’t a fan.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with it, and I don’t blame other people for doing it, he said. “Being wealthy was simply never my goal. “.
And it is accurate. He battled when he went back to his peanut business. The only option left to him was to sell his company, which was $1 million in debt.
He started writing as a result, just like many people who are stuck and have lived lives that are worth sharing. He wrote about a wide range of topics, including his life and career and Middle East peace.
He and his wife are able to live comfortably thanks to the $217,000 annual pension, the proceeds from his more than two dozen published books, and other sources of income.
However, they still prefer to lead generally quite simple lives.
He bought his clothes at the nearby Dollar General, according to a 2011 Rolling Stone interview. Additionally, he has a history of traveling on commercial flights as opposed to private ones.
Carter cost taxpayers $456,000 as opposed to the $952,000 budgeted for former president George H.W. Bush, according to the General Services Administration’s 2019 fiscal year budget. W. Bush.
Pension, office, personnel, and other ancillary expenses were all included in the budget.
John F. Kennedy, George W. Taxpayers spent $1 million on each of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
On Saturday, August 4, 2018 in Plains, Georgia, Jimmy Carter eats dinner with his wife, the former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, while taking questions from reporters at Jill Stuckey’s house. President Carter was raised in Plains, Georgia, where he also was born. (Image courtesy of Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images).
Carter made other contributions to his community, frequently without charge, while his successors went on to serve on advisory boards, deliver keynote addresses, and in some ways live celebrity lives.
Carter started teaching at Emory University soon after leaving the White House, and after 37 years of instruction, he was given tenure.
Additionally, he was a Sunday school teacher at Maranatha Baptist Church. He only missed a few classes, one of which was in 2019 when he had surgery to remove a subdural hematoma.
The former president has a long history of involvement with Habitat for Humanity and built his own house in 1961. He has assisted with 4,300 home renovation projects across 14 nations over the years.
“Believe me when I say I’m not being modest here. I’m not being modest here. I’m being truthful. Every time he shows up at the job site, he’ll work harder than you do, Garth Brooks told Yahoo.
The Carters’ residence has undergone some renovations over the years, which Rosalynn claimed they handled independently because at that time they had spent so much time building homes with Habitat for Humanity that they knew what they were doing.
The interior, however, generally appears as you would anticipate. cozy and warm.
When Carter isn’t helping people, he’s either relaxing at home or at a friend’s house, eating a nice meal—on a paper plate, no less—or going for a walk with Rosalynn around the neighborhood.
We’re pleased to share this wonderful photo from the @POTUS and @FLOTUS visit to see the Carters in Plains, Ga.!
— The Carter Center (@CarterCenter) May 4, 2021
Thank you President and Mrs. Biden! pic.twitter.com/QcA33iUev4
Carter returned to his hometown to spend the rest of his life there despite having lived for four years in what some might have considered a grandiose manner.
Carter said of Plains, “We feel at home here. “And the residents of the town look after us when we need them. “.
We can’t predict the future, but I don’t think we’ll ever see another former president embrace small town life.
But it sure would be nice to see someone like Jimmy Carter go back to their roots and use their power to support their community. When you consider how exceptional this man is, you almost start crying.
We appreciate you continuing to be an inspiration, Jimmy Carter.
