One week before his 99th birthday and months after it was announced he was entering hospice care, former President Jimmy Carter appeared at his hometown’s annual peanut festival alongside his wife Rosalynn.
“Beautiful day for President & Mrs. Carter to enjoy a ride through the Plains Peanut Festival! And just a week before he turns 99,” The Carter Center posted on social media. “We’re betting peanut butter ice cream is on the menu for lunch!”
The center was responding to a video posted by an onlooker of the longest married presidential couple being driven through the streets of Plains, Georgia, on Saturday.
In February, Carter — the longest-lived president in U.S. history — “decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention,” The Carter Center said at the time. In May, the family revealed Rosalynn, 96, had been diagnosed with dementia
Jason Carter, a grandson of the former president, told The New York Times last week that the family thought it was going to be a matter of days before his grandfather died when they first announced the transition to hospice care in February.
“I was down there with him in the hospital and then said goodbye. And then we thought it was going to be in that week that it was coming to the end. And it’s just now been seven months,” he said.
Another of the Carters’ grandsons, Josh Carter, told People magazine in August “it’s clear we’re in the final chapter,” but that his grandfather is “still fully Jimmy Carter.”
"He’s just tired. I mean, he’s almost 99 years old, but he fully understands… and has felt the love,” Josh Carter said of his grandfather’s reception to the praise and messages of support from around the world. Of his grandparents, he said “they are still holding hands.”
Jimmy Carter was born in Plains and ran his family’s peanut business before getting involved in elected politics in the 1960s. He served as governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975 and was elected president in 1976, beating then-President Gerald Ford. Four years later, Carter would lose to Ronald Reagan.
After serving as president, Carter and his wife founded The Carter Center to promote human rights globally. For his work with the center and his post-presidency diplomacy, he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 2002. For 35 years, including as recently as 2019, the Carters have helped build thousands of houses with Habitat for Humanity.
Carter turns 99 on Oct. 1. The Carter Center is asking members of the public to send birthday messages and tributes.