Jimmy Carter, former US president, turns 100

Jimmy Carter celebrates his one centesimal birthday on Tuesday, making him the primary US president to succeed in the milestone.

Carter, a Democrat who served within the White Home from 1977 to 1981, has spent the previous 19 months in hospice care in his residence state of Georgia.

However the former peanut farmer, who first entered politics within the Nineteen Sixties as a state senator, is “emotionally engaged and nonetheless having experiences and laughing, loving”, his grandson, Jason, mentioned in September.

And the centenarian nonetheless has political ambitions: “I am solely attempting to make it to vote for Kamala Harris” in November’s election, the humanitarian and Nobel Prize recipient mentioned, in accordance with his grandson.

To honour the event, volunteers with Habitat for Humanity – the housing charity Carter has labored with for 40 years – are constructing 30 houses in Minnesota this week.

A number of occasions have been organised in Plains, the previous Georgia governor’s hometown, to have fun the event on Tuesday.

The day started with a naturalisation ceremony for 100 folks from 30 separate international locations who all grew to become US residents. Within the afternoon, a army flyover – together with 4 F-18 jets – graced the skies over Plains.

It comes after a star-studded live performance was held in Atlanta, Georgia, earlier this month to have fun the thirty ninth president’s milestone birthday and to lift funds for The Carter Middle.

“It was an unbelievable night, full of excellent music and heartfelt tributes, and it made historical past because the first-ever one centesimal birthday celebration for a residing American president,” Carter mentioned on the time.

The live performance, which raised greater than $1.2m (£900,000) and in addition featured recorded messages from different presidents, will air on Georgia Public Broadcasting on Tuesday. Dozens of musical acts carried out on the occasion and 1000’s attended.

The previous president might be watching the printed on Tuesday, his household mentioned.

Carter, who was not capable of attend the live performance in particular person, made a uncommon public look in November 2023 when he attended a memorial service for his spouse Rosalynn who died aged 96 earlier that month.

Their 77-year marriage stays the longest of any first couple.

When Carter first entered hospice care in Plains, Georgia, in February 2023, some relations reportedly felt he solely had a matter of days left to stay.

“It’s a present,” Josh Carter, one other of his grandsons, mentioned of the previous few months in a latest interview with the New York Occasions. “It’s a present that I didn’t know we have been going to get.”

Others say Carter’s story has additionally raised consciousness of the advantages of hospice care. “We’re all rooting for Jimmy Carter,” Barbara Pearce, the CEO of Connecticut Hospice, instructed the BBC’s US accomplice CBS Information.

“He has finished extra for us than we may ever do for ourselves by mentioning that it is a affordable option to make,” she mentioned. “He is given all people permission to think about [hospice care] as an inexpensive choice that does not shorten their life, however does enhance their consolation and fulfilment.”