When Presidents Came Together
On November 4, 1991, five presidents gathered for the dedication of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. It was the first time in American history that five presidents had gathered in one place. President George Herbert Walker Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush, who were serving in the White House at that time, came to the dedication, along with former presidents Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat; Gerald Ford and his wife, Betty; Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn; Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, and Lady Bird Johnson, widow of Lyndon Johnson who had served just prior to Richard Nixon.
From left to right: Lady Bird Johnson; Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter;
Gerald and Betty Ford; Richard and Pat Nixon; Ronald and Nancy Reagan;
President George H. W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush
Five presidents gathered again yesterday, this time to honor former president James Earl (Jimmy) Carter at his state funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden were in attendance at the funeral, along with former presidents William J. (Bill) Clinton and his wife, Hillary; George W. Bush and his wife Laura; Barack Obama, and Donald Trump and his wife Melania. Also in attendance were Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff, along with vice president-elect James David (J.D.) Vance and former vice presidents, Al Gore Jr. and Mike Pence and his wife Karen.
In this divisive political age, I was encouraged to see those men and women sitting together on the first three pews at the National Cathedral. At the end of the day, we are all human beings who came into the world in the exact same way and who will one day meet our Maker. These men and women came together for an honorable purpose: to honor the life of an imperfect man who supported many policies I disagree with, but who also devoted his life to loving his neighbor as himself, something he learned at the knees of his mama and daddy.
James Earl “Jimmy” Carter Jr. was born in 1924 in Plains, Georgia, the eldest of four children. Jimmy grew up in nearby Archery. James Earl Sr. was a farmer and businessman. Jimmy’s mother, Lillian Gordy Carter, was a registered nurse.
Jimmy Carter’s Boyhood Home
Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America Project
in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive,
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Jimmy attended public school in Plains. In 1946 he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and married Rosalynn Smith, also from Plains. Carter began a career in the Navy, eventually serving on a nuclear submarine. When Carter’s father died in 1953, Jimmy and Rosalynn went home for the funeral. Hearing from townspeople what a profound impact his father had on his community, Carter decided to give up his Navy career to make a difference at home as his father had done. The Carters struggled financially at first, as they managed a seed and farm supply business and a peanut farm. For a year, they lived in a government housing project for low-income families. Eventually their businesses prospered.
The Carter’s public housing unit in Plains,
courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Carter also learned about public service from his mother. When he was a child, his mother often cared for the sick without pay. In her late sixties, she spent two years with the Peace Corps in India. She also taught her son to care about all people, no matter who they were.
Lillian Carter, c. 1977,
photo by Bernard Gotfryd,
courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Carter was elected to the state senate of Georgia in 1962. In 1966 he ran for governor and lost. Soon afterward, he went on an evangelistic campaign in the Northeast, going door-to-door sharing his faith in Jesus. He ran for governor again in 1970 and won.
In 1976 Carter was elected president.
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter at his Inaugural Ball,
photo by Warren K. Leffler,
courtesy of the Library of Congress.
President Jimmy Carter,
photo by Karl Schumacher,
courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter with daughter Amy,
photo by Bernard Gotfryd,
courtesy of the Library of Congress.
After four years in the White House, the Carters returned to Plains in 1981.
Home of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter in Plains, Georgia
They were active in Maranatha Baptist Church. Carter taught a Sunday school class for decades.
Carter teaches Sunday school at age 92,
Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America Project
in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive,
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
In 1982 Carter founded the Carter Center. The center works to protect human rights, alleviate human suffering, prevent and resolve conflicts, enhance freedom and democracy, and improve health. The Carters traveled the world to carry out the center’s work. In 2002 Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Carter became an accomplished woodworker and an artist. He climbed partway up Mt. Everest at age 60, almost to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa at 63, and to the top of Mt. Fuji in Japan at 69. For many years, he and Rosalynn spent a week leading a Habitat for Humanity team. They enjoyed their children (Jack, Chip, Jeff, and Amy), grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and their hobbies of fly-fishing and birdwatching.
Carter wrote 32 bestselling books. He wrote about faith, aging, government, and world peace. He also wrote a novel, a book of poetry, a children’s book illustrated by his daughter Amy, and a biography of his mother.
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were married for 77 years until her death at age 99 in November of 2023.
It was good to see current and former national leaders saying the Lord’s Prayer together. It was good to hear Carter’s grandson read from the Sermon on the Mount. However, Ray and I looked at one another with sadness when Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood began to sing John Lennon’s “Imagine.” What a terrible time to “imagine there’s no heaven.”
The unity I witnessed on my computer screen yesterday was encouraging. Democrat Jimmy Carter defeated incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in 1976, but the two later became very close friends. They had agreed that whichever of them survived the longer would speak the eulogy at the funeral of the one who passed away first. President Carter survived Gerald Ford by 17 years, so Carter was able to give the eulogy for President Ford at his funeral on January 3, 2007. However, Gerald Ford had written a eulogy for President Carter before Ford passed away in 2006. Ford’s son, Steven Ford, read that eulogy at Carter’s funeral yesterday.
Unity in our country is crucial. We need to live up to our motto, E pluribus unum, meaning “out of many, one.”
Painting E Pluribus Unum
at the Federal Complex in Erie, Pennsylvania
Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive,
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
It is even more important that we are unified as Christians and as families. It is what Jesus wants. He prayed:
The glory which You have given Me
I have given to them, that they may be one,
just as We are one; I in them and You in Me,
that they may be perfected in unity,
so that the world may know
that You sent Me, and loved them,
even as You have loved Me.
John 17:22-23
Jesus was completely unified with his Father, as He said:
“I and the Father are one.”
John 10:30
Paul gave the Ephesians these instructions about how to do that:
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord,
implore you to walk in a manner
worthy of the calling with which you have been called,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
showing tolerance for one another in love,
being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace.
Ephesians 4:1-3