Former President Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, has died at age 100, his office confirmed Sunday.
Carter was the first U.S. president to reach their 100th birthday.
The former president had been receiving hospice care since February 2023 at his home in Georgia, where he lived with his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter — who died in November 2023.
The Carter Center posted on X, confirming the former president’s passing.
“Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia,” the post read.
Carter was elected president in 1976, defeating the Republican incumbent, Gerald Ford. Carter served one term before losing re-election in 1980 to Ronald Reagan and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his human rights work around the world.
After leaving office at age 56, Carter devoted his life to helping others. He was seen building homes for the disadvantaged with the nonprofit organization Habitat for Humanity. The Carters traveled the world to help build democratic institutions, lobby for victims of human rights abuses, and spearhead efforts to eradicate diseases.
Carter wrote more than two dozen books after leaving the White House, including “Keeping the Faith: Memoirs of a President” (1982), “An Hour Before Daylight: Memoirs of My Rural Boyhood” (2001), “The Personal Beliefs of Jimmy Carter” (2002), and “Faith: A Journey for All,” (2018). He also wrote poetry collections, as well as a fictional work about the Revolutionary War, titled “The Hornet’s Nest” (2003).
Joe Biden became the second Catholic President in history, following in Carter’s footsteps and attended church services regularly — both at home and abroad.
“Our commitment to human rights must be absolute, our laws fair, our natural beauty preserved,” Carter declared. “The powerful must not persecute the weak, and human dignity must be enhanced.”
