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In Plains, Jimmy Carter’s Hometown, Residents Keep Vigil


PLAINS, Ga. – Jimmy Carter always comes home to Plains.

After leaving the Navy in 1953, he returned to Plains, the small Georgia town where he grew up and eventually where he began the political career that would lead him to the presidency. Years later, he found in the Plains a paradise where he could reinvent himself after the bitter defeat that saw him kicked out of the White House. And more recently, it’s been a place to heal, as he’s weathered severe health downturns.

Now, Mr. Carter, 98, is back in Plains again, drawn to the comforts of home and the embrace of a community he has cherished and relied on through every chapter of his life. , including what now seems to be his last. .

On Saturday, his representative said after a brief number of hospital visits, Mr. Carter was receiving hospice care at the home just off Main Street that he had shared with his wife Rosalynn for decades.

The residents of the Plains have been on guard, navigating an wait that is both bleak and bizarre in many ways, as news cameras descend on the town and residents begin their lives.

Marvin Laster, the former executive director of the Boys & Girls Club in Albany, Ga., who befriended Mr. Carter while working with him at the organization’s outpost, said: “People always ask me: ‘How is he?’ in Dong Bang. “He’s in good spirits and he has strong faith, and that’s what matters.”

Mr. Carter was known by his neighbors as Mr. Jimmy, a familiar face at the community gatherings or Sunday school lessons he taught several years ago. About 550 people live in the Plains, and Sumter County, which includes the Plains, is one of the few rural areas in Georgia where Democrats have had a slight edge in recent presidential elections.

The appeal of Plains, Mr. Carter said, is the promise of the kind of modest, small-town existence he desires after the presidency. In fact, the only disagreement Mr. Laster remembers having had with Mr. Carter was over the name of the Plains Boys & Girls Club, officially known as the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter unit: Mr. congressman of his clothes and clothes. his wife’s name from there, but Mr. Laster and other board members voted no.

Although Mr. Carter wanted a normal life, the results of his living in the Plains turned it into an unusual town. The signs marking the town limits boast that the Plains is home to the 39th president. The ranch where he grew up just outside of town is a National Park. His modest home is surrounded by a black security fence and guard posts.

Other small towns in this part of Georgia, joined together in a constellation of country roads, have withered or have streets filled with fast food joints and convenience stores. The heart of the Plains has a cafe and a row of gift shops bustling with tourists.

Without Mr. Carter, “you wouldn’t have the downtown atmosphere that you have,” said Jeff Clements, owner of the Buffalo Peanut Company, a commercial peanut shelling and nut handling company owned by what used to be the Carter family’s warehouse.

But his popularity hasn’t always been easy, especially in a small community like this. Not long after Saturday’s announcement, television news vans began occupying parking spots downtown, and reporters approached store owners and residents, asking questions they asked. have answered many times before.

At one point, after doing about half a dozen interviews, Mr. Clements climbed into a tractor and helped transport peanuts, just to get away from the commotion.

Mr. Clements said his political views do not match those of Mr. Carter, but that he has particular respect for the humanitarian work he has done since leaving the presidency.

“The fact that he is still willing to be a Christian and act the Christian way and is not afraid to do so in this day and age is his legacy more than any other,” he said. what he did when he was president.”

Jean Ludescher, who lives in Minnesota, spent the winter in Florida. She knew she wanted to drive to the Plains at some point to visit Mr. Carter’s hometown, but she decided to come sooner after learning of his condition.

“The first president you elect is a big deal,” she said as she sat on the couch outside a downtown store with Leo, her giant 9-month-old schnauzer.

A woman passing by interrupted.

“Has anyone heard anything about the news today?” she asked. “Is he okay?”

There are no updates available.

Ms. Ludescher’s companion, Don Schumacher, went out with her and said that Mr. Carter’s death meant the loss of someone he saw as the country’s moral guide. He noted the candor that was once a prominent feature of Mr. Carter’s legacy.

“I think he is the Gandhi of America,” he said. “We need him.”

Mr. Carter has been honored for his large-scale, global efforts to defeat the epidemic and protect democracy. But Mr. Laster said the former president and first lady also accepted much smaller but consequential projects in their own right.

“They were really led by the words of the producer,” he said of the Carters, paraphrasing a line in Matthew’s Gospel. “They tried to do everything they could for the least of them.”

Mr. Laster is particularly proud of the Boys & Girls Club, which Mr. Carter has personally built and which has helped raise $2.5 million, as he emphasizes that no student must pay to join. The club was right across the street from his house – proof, Mr. Laster said, that his attention never strayed too far from home.

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