PLAINS, Ga. — The longest-living president, Jimmy Carter, was honored Monday, along with other presidents, in a celebration at the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park.
There have been 99 years of Jimmy Carter and people are grateful for all of it.
“There's no place I'd rather on President's Day than in Plains, Georgia,” Larry Cook said.
He’s a historian, but Cook says he wouldn’t be without the help of the Carters. After hearing him give a presentation, Jimmy Carter told Cook he should become a full-time historian.
“To look down here for so many years and see President and Mrs. Carter sitting in the front row, we certainly miss that. However, we're here to carry on that legacy and to remember them,” Cook said.
Some are grateful for Carter’s work as president.
“It's a shame that Carter can’t live forever,” said Stanly Gobold, a historian who studied the Carters for 30 years. “He's set aside more land for national parks and monuments than any president had ever done, including Teddy Roosevelt."
For others, like 13-year-old Reed Elliotte, he's grateful for Carter's character. He came all the way from Kentucky to celebrate his favorite president.
“I love all the charity he does and building houses for people. He's a president that wanted peace,” Elliotte said.
This President’s Day, people are a little extra grateful that Carter is still here to celebrate.
“After being on hospice now for a year, many people thought he wouldn't be here this President's Day,” Jan Williams said.
Williams and her husband George have known the Carters; he was Jan’s Sunday school teacher for a long time.
“Known him all my life," George said. "We've gone to church together for years and years.”
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They say he’s still an asset to the community even at the end.
“One morning he was getting ready for church, he fell and he had to get 14 stitches in his eye,” Elliotte said. “That night he was in Nashville building houses, and that’s proof of how strong he is, and he’s one year into hospice.”
To this day, Carter still serves as an inspiration.
“That is an example that although you may have hospice– which is wonderful to help to take care of you– your life can carry on. and you can still be a good citizen,” Williams said.
99 years of Jimmy Carter and they’re grateful for them all.
“We're gonna miss him, we sure do. We love him very much,” Williams said.
The last time we saw former President Carter was at his wife Rosalynn Carter's funeral.
The two were married for 77 years before her passing on Nov. 19, 2023.
Her hometown of Plains, all of Georgia, and the nation came together to remember Mrs. Carter through services and tributes.
Mrs. Carter died at 96.