Jimmy Carter^†

A peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia who trained for nuclear submarines under Admiral Rickover wasn't the obvious choice to run the free world. Carter positioned himself as exactly what the post-Watergate, post-Vietnam moment needed: a moral outsider with no Washington baggage. He turned his Georgia roots, Baptist faith, and blunt manner into political assets, beat a sitting president in 1976, and walked the entire inaugural parade route instead of riding in a limousine. That last gesture was a statement of intent that turned out to be entirely accurate.

His presidency is the hardest to grade in modern American history. The Camp David Accords in 1978, thirteen days at a secluded Maryland retreat that produced a peace deal between Egypt and Israel that's held for nearly fifty years, stand as one of the most durable achievements in American diplomacy. The Iran hostage crisis ended his political career: 444 days, a failed rescue mission that killed eight soldiers, and the hostages released minutes after Reagan was inaugurated. His post-presidential decades built a different record: a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, near-eradication of Guinea worm disease, and forty years of Habitat for Humanity construction.

In 1952, Carter led a small Navy team into a partially melted-down reactor at Chalk River, Canada. They built a practice replica on a nearby tennis court, then descended into the damaged core in ninety-second intervals, absorbing their yearly radiation limit per session. That story stayed buried for decades while he became the Sunday school teacher who kept showing up for Habitat for Humanity the day after requiring stitches at ninety-five. He also deregulated homebrewing in 1978, a legislative footnote that accidentally launched the American craft beer industry.

The state funeral was held January 9, 2025, at Washington National Cathedral, where President Joe Biden delivered the eulogy. About 22,950 people visited the Carter Center in Atlanta while he lay in repose. The U.S. Navy conducted a missing man formation flyover honoring his naval service. He was buried next to Rosalynn Carter under a willow tree on the grounds of their Plains, Georgia home.