‘We honor you, Mr. President’ | Politicians, celebrities and more pay tribute to Jimmy Carter during 99th birthday
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - When you’re a former president of the United States and a renowned international peacemaker, you don’t have to wait until your birthday to get a couple of cards.
Especially if you’re turning 99.
Ahead of and during his birthday, former President Jimmy Carter received the well-wishes of celebrities, political leaders, ambassadors and everyday Americans.
The nation’s 39th president and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter made a surprise appearance last weekend at the annual Plains Peanut Festival. The Carters have visited the Plains Peanut Festival before, which celebrates the presidential couple and the region’s cash crop.
Back on Feb. 18, 2023, the Carter Center — which the former president founded in Atlanta after his one term in the White House — announced Carter had “decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention.
In May, the Carter Center announced Rosalynn Carter had been diagnosed with dementia.
Carter officially became America’s oldest living ex-president on March 21, 2019, surpassing George H.W. Bush, who died in November 2018 at the age of 94 years and 171 days old. Prior to Bush, previous record holders were Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Herbert Hoover and John Adams.
Last month, the Carters received the Gates Foundation’s Goalkeepers Lifetime Achievement Award. The award honors their multiple humanitarian achievements, including their work to nearly eradicate guinea worm disease and their commitment to peace and democracy, the foundation said on social media.
In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”
Carter was diagnosed with cancer in August 2015 at age 91 after having surgery to remove a lesion on his liver. After having the surgery, Carter announced the cancer had spread to other parts of his body. Later that year, the Carter Center said he had been cleared of the disease.
The Carters have three sons, one daughter, nine grandsons, three granddaughters, five great-grandsons, and eight great-granddaughters.
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