Former President Jimmy Carter smiles as he receives the Order of Manuel Amador Guerrero from Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela during a ceremony at the Carter Center, January 14, 2016, in Atlanta.
John Bazemore/AP
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John Bazemore/AP
Former President Jimmy Carter smiles as he receives the Order of Manuel Amador Guerrero from Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela during a ceremony at the Carter Center, January 14, 2016, in Atlanta.
John Bazemore/AP
Online tributes have been paid to former President Jimmy Carter, after it was announced the 98-year-old statesman would enter hospice care at home after a recent string of short hospital stays .
Politicians, celebrities, organizations and more have praised the one-term Democrat who continued to lead a life of public service long after leaving the White House.
“Jimmy Carter is one of the kindest, most caring people I’ve ever had the honor of meeting,” said comedian and writer Jon Stewart. said. “He’s the best of us.”
Former comedian-turned-Senator Al Franken simply said Carter was “the greatest ex-president. By far”.
A number of current politicians – both Democrats And Republicans — also celebrated Carter’s accomplishments.
Texas Representative Sheila Jackson Lee called Carter a “treasure and an American icon” and said he was one of the nation’s most caring presidents.
“From the time he began his service in the United States military and throughout his presidency, he has shown a conscience of benevolence,” Jackson Lee said.
Carter became the 39th President of the United States after defeating Republican incumbent Gerald Ford in the 1976 election.
Over the weekend, presidential historian Michael Beschloss shared a series of photos of Carter on social media, including one during his presidency of Carter in the Oval Office with Joe Biden.
Annette Gordon-Reed, professor of history at Harvard University, who wrote The Hemings of Monticello: An American Family, said she was too young to vote for Carter but supported his campaign by helping run the Youth for Carter group.
“I went door to door distributing brochures, made calls. Thrilled when he won. I knew his whole cabinet, watched all his press conferences. Devastated when he lost “, added Gordon-Reed.
Carter failed to win a second term as president, but his loss to Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980 did not eliminate him from public life.
In 1982, he and his wife Rosalynn founded the nonprofit Carter Center, and the former president also helped build homes for the housing organization, Habitat for Humanity — even in the mid-1990s.
“All of us at Habitat for Humanity lift President and Mrs. Carter up in prayer as he enters hospice care. We pray for his comfort and for their peace,” the organization said. said.
Outside of work, Carter and his wife were also avid birdwatchers, a hobby the family developed after a trip to Tanzania in 1988, he told the National Wildlife Federation.
The magazine Bird watching said it was “to wish peace and love to President Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, who have been avid birdwatchers since the late 1980s”.
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