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Plans underway for Jimmy Carterโs 100th birthday
Matt Kempner
6 - 7 minutes
The unthinkable is being thought among those close to Jimmy Carter.
The former president, who entered hospice care 16 months ago, may make it to his 100th birthday on Oct. 1. Some are making plans to mark the occasion.
Among them is Jill Stuckey, a family friend and superintendent of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park in the former presidentโs hometown. She said she visits with him nearly every day.
โI think he is going to make it to 100,โ Stuckey said. โI donโt know that he is saying that, โIโm going to live to 100.โ But I do know there is will to live in all of us, and I think he has that same will.โ
When Carter entered hospice care in February of last year, doctors told the family he might have only days to live.
About 500 days have passed since then.
Carter has outlived Rosalynn Carter, his wife of 77 years, who entered hospice nine months after he did and died in November. The former president hasnโt made a public appearance since her funeral. Instead, he remains inside the coupleโs modest home in Plains in south Georgia. Still, he cast a mail-in ballot for the primary election in May.
He has already lived longer than any U.S. president in history.
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Recognitions for Carterโs centennial include a 100-mile community bicycle ride in his home county and a free film festival in Atlanta organized by the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum.
โWe have always planned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth, and it just makes it even more special that he is still with us,โ said Tony Clark, a spokesperson for the Atlanta-based library.
Staff are still working out some of the plans. But locked in is an indoor and outdoor film festival at the presidential library on Sept. 28, the Saturday before Carterโs birthday, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., featuring some of his favorite movies while in office.
According to the libraryโs records, hundreds of movies were shown at the White House during his presidency, including All the Presidentโs Men, Rocky, One Flew Over the Cuckooโs Nest, The Blue Lagoon, Caddyshack, Kramer vs. Kramer and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. He watched parts or all of at least some of the films.
While Carter was Georgiaโs governor he helped create an economic development push to film more movies in the state. He has another important connection to the big screen. Carterโs first date with Rosalynn Carter was at the movies. The next morning he told his mother he had found the person he would marry.
Admission to the library will be free on the day of the film festival. And on Oct. 1, Carterโs actual birthday, the library will follow its tradition of having the admission price match the presidentโs age: $1.00. (Last year on his 99th birthday, it was 99 cents.) As always, kids 16 or younger get in free.
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The library and museum also intends to have a new exhibit about Carterโs 100 years, including documents, photos and art that havenโt been on display at the facility before, Clark said.
The adjacent Carter Center, the nonprofit that the former first couple founded to improve health, encourage freedom and spread peace globally, has yet to disclose how Carterโs birthday will be celebrated. The centerโs chief executive, Paige Alexander, offered little more than a one-word hint: โmusic.โ
โMusic was an important part of his life. It will have something to do with that,โ she said.
Habitat for Humanity, the Georgia-based homebuilding nonprofit that the Carters championed for more t
han three decades, already does a special building push each year coinciding with the former presidentโs birthday. This year the weeklong Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project will be in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Alexander said this past week that there hasnโt been a change in Carterโs condition. She told the Atlanta Journal-Constitutionโs โPolitically Georgiaโ in May that he was โenjoying peanut butter ice cream.โ
Jason Carter said on the AJCโs Monica Pearson Show in May that he recently told his grandfather that heโs never sure how to respond when asked how the former president is doing.
โHe kind of laughed a little bit, and he looked at me, and he said: โI donโt know myself,โโ Jason Carter told Pearson. โBut I think heโs OK. You know, heโs hanging in there, and he knows heโs not in charge. So heโs just waiting for whatโs next.โ
Groups in Carterโs hometown of Plains are still sketching out plans for how to pay tribute around the time of his birthday.
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Sumter Cycling, a nonprofit of southwest Georgia cyclers in Carterโs native Sumter County, typically holds a nearly 50-mile bicycle ride to coincide with the Plains Peanut Festival, which this year falls on the Saturday before Carterโs birthday. Now organizers are hashing out plans to more than double the Plains, Trains and Bike Chains ride to 100 miles in recognition of the former presidentโs big day.
The nearby Jimmy Carter National Historical Park is planning a riff on the Cartersโ frugality. Staffers are putting together a list of 100 ways to save time, energy and money.
โThatโs near and dear to the Cartersโ hearts,โ said Stuckey, the parkโs superintendent.
Editorโs note: A list was updated to reflect that Joe Biden recently passed Richard Nixon as the 10th longest-living president.
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undraiser? $1 million for Jimmy Carterโs old art tools, print
@StochasticParrot Give us the details how it is resolving if on October 1 he is passing? I have the feeling it will be coming down to wires!
He's already a centenarian... he would >50% survive if born prematurely 100 years ago
Manifold mentioned in WaPo:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/22/jimmy-carter-100-birthday-celebration/
Social security actuarial table alone gives him (1-0.3416)^(109/365) = 0.88 chance of survival. The average hospice stay is 70 days but that's such a heterogeneous group that it seems reasonable to increase, rather than decrease, his life expectancy with each day he survives in there. Conditioning on the fact that he's already survived 1.3 years in hospice, his life expectancy is probably at least several months. It's hard to have a strong inside view that he's going to croak imminently when the interview with the family says nothing's changed in the last few months and the only remarkable thing is that he sleeps a lot.