Though he ran the affairs of the United States of America for one term of four years, as the 39th president, he was on record as a president who made concerted efforts to, as he campaigned, promote “efficiency in government”. Until his death at the age of 100 years, making him the longest living American president, he was referred by people from within the country and on the international level.
Jimmy Carter, full names James Earl Carter junior, and his wife, Rosalynn lived an enviable spartan life.
Popular for his devotion to his farm at Archery, Plains in the state of Georgia, his years in the White House did not stop him from returning to his farm after he lost to Ronald Reagan in 1980. The farm, known as “Boyhood Farm” was started by his parents, Earl and Lillian, in 1938. He worked on it with them until he left for the Navy Academy. He had a poor background, as his family was the only white family that owned farm land in Archery at that time. Their home had no running water for the first eleven years of his life, and electricity was connected only when he was 14.
The humble background reflected in his policies in political offices he held. As president, the association he had with black people in Archery must have informed his non-racial disposition, which was believed to have affected the fortune of his party, the Democrat, after his victory. He did not radically change from that belief.
The family lived in a three-bedroom house. Aside from their parents room, he took one while his sisters, Gloria and Ruth, shared the third. He returned to the farm after he lost his bid for second term.
But Jimmy did not inherit the farm from his parents. During a downturn, Earl and Lillian had sold the farm in 1949. He bought it back in 1953, and took charge of the business. He, however, put the farm in a blind trust after his election to the White House in 1981. So, when he returned from the White House, it was to the farm. There was some challenge though, as the person who managed it told Carter and Rosalynn that owing to the drought at the time, the farm was in debt to the tune of $1 million. They were undaunted, and so had to raise money to continue. Said to sit on 360 acres of land the farm gave Carter the fame of being one of the most successful peanut farmers in the country. The National Park Service later bought 17 of the 360 acres with a purpose to turn the place to a tourist centre. Visitors to the place can access the rooms used by the old Carter family, thus seeing the humble beginning of the former president who returned to the farm of his childhood.
The former first couple brought modernisation to the farm, and introduced new concepts to increase revenue. Peanut was not the only crop they planted. There were tomatoes, sugarcane, corn and cotton among others. They also did livestock; raising honeybees, goats and chickens.
The former first couple lived in a two-bedroom house in Plains till their death.
But the farm was not the only passion that they took up after office. The Carter Presidential Center, launched in 1982, was used to promote peace, democratic principles and human rights ideals all over the world. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2002.
Prior to his presidency between 1977 and 1981, he was first a senator in Georgia from 1963-1967, and governor of the state of Georgia between 1971 and 1975.