Above: This ceramic mug found its way back to Gratiot County with the help of my grandparents, who stopped in Plains, Georgia, on their way home in the late 1970s.

Today, on January 9, 2025, the United States paid final respects by laying to rest the 39^th President of the United States, James Earl (“Jimmy”) Carter.

 Carter occupied the White House from 1977-1981 in what was a time when Gratiot County, like the rest of the United States, sought to recover from a national scandal that shook our confidence in American politicians. Michigan’s closest tie to the presidency was President Gerald R. Ford,  Carter’s predecessor, and the only non-elected vice president and president in our nation’s history. Had Ford not pardoned President Richard M. Nixon for potential crimes during Watergate, Ford would easily have been re-elected as President. Before this happened, Ford, a United States Representative from Grand Rapids, Michigan, had visited Gratiot County more than once as a congressman.

However, Gratiot County never carried Carter in the Election of 1976. In its entire history, Gratiot County went Democratic only four times and had not done so since 1964. Only in a time of severe economic or national crisis had Gratiot County helped elect a Democratic President. It either took the Great Depression or the death of President  Kennedy to get Gratiot County to go Democratic. My paternal grandmother complained the day after the 1976 election, saying, “THAT Carter won.” He wasn’t Jimmy Carter, he was “THAT Carter” from Georgia.

The late 1970s continued to be a time of severe economic problems, which soon led to the worst economic recession the nation had seen during the Great Depression of the 1930s. We heard the words “energy crisis,” Carter urged the public to conserve energy by curtailing gasoline usage and turning down thermostats to 68 degrees. Inflation skyrocketed as the decade went on. In Gratiot County, by the late 1970s, property owners often opposed votes on school millages, which my father continually bemoaned as a small farmer. All of these things surrounded the arrival of President Jimmy Carter after he became President.

I was never a supporter of President Carter during his time in office. I remember clearly the day after the 1976 election when my math teacher said in class that he voted for Carter because “He (Carter) represented the little guy.” Another social studies teacher, on the day of the election, did the electoral college math on the blackboard in geography class. Mr. Milne told me Ford would win the election if two or three states went for Ford (I remember that one was Hawaii). It turned out that my teacher was wrong, and Carter won. For a time, it seemed that the country wanted to get away from the word “Watergate” by electing Jimmy Carter. Like many other people on that 1977 Inauguration Day, I was surprised by how President-Elect Carter got out of his limousine and walked part of the parade route along with family members. The Secret Service must have had fits with that decision, but that was Jimmy Carter.

 According to my research, President Carter’s closest connection to Gratiot County occurred after he left office and went hunting in northern Michigan. According to a story, Carter and his Secret Service agents stopped to eat at a McDonalds (possibly in Clare). While those at the register who took the group’s order did not recognize the Secret Service, Carter later walked up to the corner by himself to ask for a refill of his beverage. The girl at the counter gazed at Carter and said he looked familiar. Jimmy Carter just smiled.

Still, by my first year of college in 1979, President Carter seemed out of favor with most people I listened to or talked to in mid-Michigan. Something we knew as “The Iran Hostage Crisis” was developing in 1978-1979 as the Shah of Iran was forced out of power and fled to the United States. A group of 52 American hostages would be held for 444 days in Iran, and Carter could do little to end the crisis. One of those held in Tehran, Robert Ode, had a sister in St. Louis, which brought the issues of the hostage crisis home. After a rescue mission to get the hostages failed, to some, it looked more and more like war was imminent. I had recently filled out my Selective Service card and sent it to the government. Remember, this was all only five to six years after the end of the Vietnam War, and many young people my age feared another draft. As a result of all of this, Carter was even more unpopular.

For those of us old enough in Gratiot County, we remember how the Carter story ended. In 1980, Ronald Reagan defeated Carter resoundingly, and Carter became a one-term president. As for me, I helped send Jimmy Carter on his way as I voted for Reagan and joined a movement that believed the country needed change.

Jump this story ahead over twenty years. Jimmy Carter has long been out of office, but his personal story intrigues me. This was not so much for his faith and character, for which I came to admire him. It was now how Carter became one of the most successful Presidents AFTER he left office. These works included his commitments to Habitat for Humanity and the Carter Center, working with countries on free and fair elections, and seeking to eliminate Guinea Worm in impoverished areas of Africa. President Carter also had earned a new title, which I heard several times and read about in an issue of Parade Magazine in the late 1990s as “America’s Most Accessible President.”

I found the title correct, as I would go on to meet President Carter three times. The first was when he did a surprise walk-through at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Museum and then reappeared at a dinner held there for teachers. Once, while traveling through Plains, Georgia, I saw the President talking to an area farmer as they examined watermelons that the farmer had in the back of his truck. Only one agent was standing next to the President. Anyone could have approached Carter had he wanted to converse.

Having re-thought Jimmy Carter as the man, the person, the character – and not so much the President – my opinion of him changed. Part of this was a more mature understanding of the significant national and international problems Carter faced when he entered office in the late 1970s. As a result, I decided to write a letter to the President after learning that he often read his mail. In a letter that I wrote to the President in late 2002, I told him that while I did not vote for him in 1980, I had tremendous admiration for him and the problems he faced as President, and how he was seeking to stay active in local, state, national, and even international issues. I also confessed that I had not voted for him in 1980, but my views of him as a person had changed drastically.

It must have been early December 2002 when the secretary called me to the Fulton High School office where I taught. When I arrived, I was told that I had received an important letter and would want to see it. The return address shocked me as it indicated that President Carter chose to reply to my letter. I received a copy of the initial letter, and at the top were the words, “ Jim, come down to Plains (Georgia) and see me.” Even more strangely, the letter I received was shortly after it was announced that Carter would receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

One of Carter’s works was teaching Sunday School at the Maranatha Baptist Church outside of Plains. Before the time of the President’s return letter, Sundays at the church drew people from across the nation and the world. I chose to find out what was happening and visited Plains with another family relative in the summer of 2003. It was hot, it was peanut country, and it was Georgia.

I think we had to arrive at the church about one hour before the church offered Sunday School, and I had to pass a couple of Secret Service agents who “wanded” me down to check for weapons. That morning, we had a pretty good seat only 4-5 rows from the President. Before he began, Carter asked the audience where people were from. While I said “Michigan,” I heard people say they were from across and outside the United States – some even from Europe and Africa. One of the humorous parts of his lesson was when he read a passage from the Old Testament lesson that mentioned a place in Jerusalem, then known as the Water Gate. It got a few laughs and snickers as Carter paused after he read the verse. I also recall looking over my shoulder toward the President, seated in the opposite aisle and behind me during the worship service. I was greeted with a very icy stare from a Secret Service Agent who stared back at me.

At the end of the Sunday church service, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter offered an opportunity that no other United States President has done. All of those present were allowed to have their picture taken with the Carters outside of the church, under the condition that your camera was ready, you stepped up and stood next to the Carters, and you did not engage the Carters in any discussion. Even though almost everyone thanked the Carters after the photo op, the couple remained stoic, looking almost straight ahead. The Carters probably spent 20+ minutes on the photos, as everyone had been told to be ready as the line moved along for their photo opportunity.

Before the end of the service, President Carter also invited all visitors to Mama’s Kitchen in Plains for lunch. At the restaurant, the Carters sat off from the dining area in a separate room with his Secret Service agents. As Carter promised in his remarks before we left the church, the “Mama’s” menu was excellent. Over the years, I traveled through Plains several times, my last stop being in 2017.

Today, one of the remaining things my paternal grandmother left was a ceramic mug she obtained when my grandparents stopped in Plains, Georgia, during a return trip from Florida in the late 1970s. The souvenir featured the beaming smiling face of then-President Carter.

Today, Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter’s lives after they left the White House still speak to us about pertinent issues that each of us who enter retirement must still answer. The questions are somber but true. What do I do with my remaining days on the earth? What is the meaning of life? How do I respond later in life to the needs of others, injustice, reform, and change in America and the world? How do I live a meaningful life? What is to be my legacy after I leave the earth?

While I never initially supported him as a young adult in the 1970s, I later found Jimmy Carter’s character (Carter the man) to be a good example of how to live and end life.

Copyright 2025 James M Goodspeed