As a mother of 10-year-old twins, I have spent what feels like a lifetime protecting my children from “bad examples,” the kind of people you’d give anything for your children not to know about, let alone emulate.
For much of their lives, that’s included walling them off from many politicians they see on TV. One example I’ll never have to hide is Jimmy Carter.
It’s not that he didn’t make mistakes — he counts plenty in his own books and public statements. But of all of the honors and achievements Carter has collected, from winning the Nobel Peace Prize to working to cure diseases to negotiating peace accords, his greatest impact may ultimately be the example he has set — someone who is simple, humble and kind.
Nowhere is that more apparent than in Plains, Ga., the little town where he grew up, where he returned after leaving the White House, and where he lives today. Along with former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who is also from Plains, Carter lives in the same one-story brick ranch that the couple built in 1961.
Three miles away from Plains sits the Carter family farm where the former president was raised, for many years without electricity or running water. Half a mile west of Plains stands Maranatha Baptist Church, where, over the years, the sanctuary became a classroom for the hundreds of Sunday school classes Carter taught following his presidency, even into his 90s.
Jan Williams was Amy Carter’s grade school teacher and plays the piano at the church.
“Mister Jimmy used to tell us in Sunday school, this whole world can be better if everybody will just be kind to the person in front of you,” she said. “He never forgot where he came from, and he’s such a wonderful example to young people if they’ll study him and to people who are my age who have watched him live.”
Back in town this week, visitors wandered in and out of the shops on Main Street, a strip so compact you can walk from front to back in about 60 seconds.
At the Buffalo Cafe, Tim Buchanan rang customers up for lunch. His eyes welled with tears when he thought about what could be next for President Carter.
“They’re just such amazing people. Growing up with them, and knowing them my whole life, it just feels like family. They are family, to everybody in town,” he said. “That’s just Plains. That’s who we are because we’ve tried to live by their example.”
Over the course of his life here, Carter has made differences large and small. He’s taken the people of Plains along with him on the incredible adventure his life became. And he’s taken steps to make sure it survives into the future, deciding to be buried in Plains to ensure visitors continue to come to town even after he’s gone.
Shortly after Carter announced his terminal brain cancer diagnosis in 2015, Josh Zembik and his then-girlfriend, Meredith Shiner, traveled from Chicago to Plains to attend Carter’s Sunday school for the first time.
“I will never forget finally reaching them, seeing their smiles, feeling the warmth, and seeing his left hand on top of her right, and wondering how on earth anyone could get between the two of them even if they tried,” Zembik said.
Zembik and Shiner eventually married and had a baby, a little boy they named “Carter,” for the man whose example they hope their son might follow someday.
Patricia Murphy joined the AJC’s politics team in 2020 from CQ Roll Call, where she was a nationally syndicated political columnist.
