Life in Pictures: Jimmy Carter

BBC
·5-min read
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Austin, Texas,2014.
[The Carter Center]

Former US President Jimmy Carter has died aged 100.

The 39th President of the United States lived longer than any president in history.

Here, we take a look at his life in pictures.

Jimmy Carter at One Year Old
James Earl Carter Jr was born on 1 October 1924 in the small town of Plains, Georgia, the eldest of four children. [Getty Images]
James Earl Carter Sr poses with his children, future US President Jimmy Carter, and siblings Gloria and Ruth, Plains, Georgia, circa 1920s
His segregationist father had started the family peanut business, and his mother, Lillian, was a registered nurse. [Corbis/Getty Images]
Jimmy Carter as a boy petting a colt in a field. Georgia, ca. 1920s.
As a child, Carter was expected to work long hours on the farm, and home life was austere. [Corbis/Getty Images]
A teenaged Jimmy Carter (#10) is included in this group portrait of the Plains High School basketball team. Plains, Georgia, ca. 1940.
A star basketball player in high school, Carter's experience of the Great Depression and staunch Baptist faith underpinned his political philosophy. [Corbis/Getty Images]
A picture of Carter in Navy military uniform
He spent seven years in the US Navy - during which time he married Rosalynn Smith, a friend of his sister's - and became a submarine officer. [Library of Congress]
Jimmy Carter shovelling peanuts in 1971
When his father died of cancer in 1953, Carter abandoned a seven-year career in the navy to take control of the ailing family peanut farm. Carter turned the business round and made himself wealthy in the process. [Getty Images]
In this Sept. 15, 1966 file photo, then Georgia State Sen. Jimmy Carter hugs his wife, Rosalynn, at his Atlanta campaign headquarters.
He entered politics in the 1960s, elected first as Georgia state senator during a special election - starting his campaign only two weeks before voting. [AP]
Former State Sen. Jimmy Carter listens to applause at the Capitol in Atlanta on April 3, 1970, after announcing his candidacy or governor. In background, his wife Rosalyn holds two-year-old daughter Amy who joined in the applause.
After an initial defeat for the governorship of Georgia, he was elected to the state's top office in 1970 - a position he would use as a springboard to the White House. [AP]
Coretta Scott King, widow of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., speaks at an unveiling of a portrait of Dr. King by artist George Mandus, Feb. 18, 1974, and dedicated by Gov. Jimmy Carter. It is the first portrait of an African American to be represented in the state's official portrait gallery.
On becoming Georgia governor in 1970, he became more overt in his support of civil rights. He placed pictures of Martin Luther King on the walls of the capitol building. Here, Carter dedicates a painting of Dr King in 1974. It was the first portrait of an African American to be represented in the state's official portrait gallery. [AP]
Then Governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter stands in front of posters saying 'Let's Elect JIMMY CARTER President' and addresses the National Democratic Issues Convention, 23 November 1975
As Carter launched his campaign for the presidency in 1974, the nation was still reeling from the Watergate scandal. He put himself forward as a simple peanut farmer, untainted by the questionable ethics of professional politicians on Capitol Hill. [Getty Images]
Newly elected President Jimmy Carter with his wife and mother salutes the crowd of supporters at a victory rally in his home town of Plains Georgia
Americans wanted an outsider and Carter fitted the bill. He won a narrow election victory against incumbent Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election. The newly elected President, with his wife and mother, saluted the crowd of supporters at a victory rally in his home town of Plains Georgia. [Corbis/Getty Images]
Jimmy Carter during his address to the 58th American Legion Convention in Seattle, Washington, 24th August 1976. Carter used his address to announce a pardon for those who evaded the Vietnam War draft.
On his first full day in office, he pardoned hundreds of thousands of men who had evaded service in Vietnam - either by fleeing abroad or failing to register with their local draft board. [Getty Images]
Egyptian President Anwar El-Sadat, US President Jimmy Carter, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin as they stand for their respective national anthems on the North Lawn of the White House, Washington DC, March 26, 1979. Following the Camp David Accord, they were there to sign the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty.
The high-point of the Carter years was the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1978 in which Egypt formally recognised the state of Israel. He also signed a treaty returning the Panama canal to Panama. [Getty Images]
Jimmy Carter, the Shah and their wives in Washington in United States on November 15th, 1977
Subsequent events conspired against him. First, the Shah of Iran was overthrown and 66 Americans were taken hostage in Tehran. Then the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. [Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images]
resident Carter tells the nation that an attempted rescue of the 53 American hostages in Teheran was scrubbed because of "equipment failure" on a helicopter. Eight American troops were killed during withdrawal of the forces that were intended for the rescue.
The public did not believe he was being tough enough and his popularity slumped. When an attempt to rescue the hostages failed, and eight members of the US military were killed, Carter appeared even weaker. [Getty Images]
Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan debate each other from separate podiums October 31, 1980 prior to the 1980 presidential election.
Carter fought off a serious challenge from Senator Edward Kennedy for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination but it was not enough to see off his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan. The former actor swept into the White House with an electoral college landslide. [Getty Images]
Carter and his wife Rosalynn help construct one of 100 houses at a Habitat For Humanity project in Tijuana.
Former US President Jimmy Carter (L) participates in election monitoring 08 May 1994 in Panama City.
He very quickly added election monitoring to the Carter Centre, famously denouncing the 1989 election in General Manuel Noriega's Panama. [Getty Images]
ormer US President Jimmy Carter holds up his Nobel Peace Prize December 10, 2002 in Oslo, Norway.
In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his "decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts". [Getty Images]
Nelson Mandela (C), celebrating his 89th birthday, stands flanked by ex-US president Jimmy Carter (R) and former UN chief Kofi Annan (L), during the launching ceremony of the group known as The Elders 18 July 2007 in Johannesburg.
In 2007 Carter became a part of The Elders, a group founded by Nelson Mandela for elder global leaders who no longer hold public office, along with Kofi Annan, Ela Bhatt and Mary Robinson. [Getty Images]
Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter speaks at a news conference at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2015.
At a news conference at the Carter Center in August 2015, the former president announced that he was being treated for cancer, the disease that killed both his parents and three sisters [Getty Images]
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter speaks to the congregation at Maranatha Baptist Church before teaching Sunday school in his hometown of Plains, Georgia on April 28, 2019.
Carter also continued to teach at a Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains. [Getty Images]
Former President Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalynn Carter arrive on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2017 in Washington, DC. In today's inauguration ceremony Donald J. Trump becomes the 45th president of the United States.
Former President Carter and wife Rosalynn attended the inauguration ceremony of Donald J. Trump in 2017. [Getty Images]
former US president made a public appearance with black eye,
After a fall in his home in 2019, the former US president made a public appearance with black eye. He spoke at an event for the non-profit, Habitat for Humanity. [BBC]
President Joe Biden and his wife Jill, visit the Carters in their home in in Georgia
In 2021 Carter and Rosalynn celebrated 75 years of marriage. President Joe Biden, and his wife Jill, visited the couple in their home in in Georgia [THE CARTER CENTER]
President Carter entering his wife's funeral service service
In a rare public appearance since entering hospice care, the former president attended a memorial service for his wife Rosalynn in Georgia. She died aged 96 in November 2023. She was diagnosed with dementia in May and entered hospice care in Georgia in the days before her death. [Getty Images]
Former US President Jimmy Carter departs following a funeral service for former US First Lady Rosalynn Carter, at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, on November 29, 2023.
Carter watched on from the front row, sitting in a wheelchair with his legs covered by a blanket. "He's coming to the end, and he's very, very physically diminished," Jason Carter, one of the former president's grandsons, said in an interview before the service. [Getty Images]

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