former U.S. president winner was 100

Jimmy Carter, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning 39th President of the United States who would go on to dedicate his life to promoting peace and humanitarian efforts across the globe after his single term in office, has died. He was 100. 

“Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia,” the Carter Center confirmed in a social media post on Sunday. 

Carter, who holds the title of the longest-living president in U.S. history, began receiving home hospice care in Feb. 2023 after undergoing “a series of short hospital stays,” the Carter Center announced at the time. His death comes 13 months after the passing of his wife, Rosalynn Carter, at age 96 in November 2023. 

Born in Plains, Ga., in 1924, James Earl “Jimmy” Carter Jr. served for seven years as a U.S. Navy officer working on submarines before leaving active duty to take over his family’s peanut farm. After returning home, the decorated officer spoke out against racism and segregation within the state, before running for — and winning — a seat in the Georgia State Senate in 1962.

After a failed bid to become Georgia’s governor in 1966, Carter returned four years later and won the subsequent gubernatorial election in 1970. Following his successful term, in which he was a vocal proponent of the Civil Rights movement, Carter announced his run for the presidency and would go on to beat then-President Gerald Ford in 1976, becoming the first U.S. president to be elected from the South since before the Civil War.

Despite his success in brokering a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt and establishing the federal Departments of Energy and Education, Carter’s presidency was marred by political turmoil. His struggle to navigate the Iran hostage crisis, his decision to boycott the Moscow Olympics, and growing economic uncertainty and racial tensions within the U.S. caused his popularity among voters to plummet. As a result, Carter lost his re-election bid to his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan, in 1980.

Following his time in office, Carter and his wife would dedicate their lives to continuing to promote human rights efforts through the founding of the Carter Center. Over the next 40 years, Carter would be instrumental in helping to broker peace treaties around the globe, eradicate infectious diseases, build homes for others with the organization Habitat for Humanity, and pen multiple novels, the narration for which saw him win three Grammys for Best Spoken Word Album.

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In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his “decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”

Carter is survived by his four children: Jack, Chip, Jeff, and Amy. His grandson Hugo Wentzel, who appeared on the television series Claim to Fame, gave an update on the former president’s condition while speaking with Entertainment Weekly in August 2023. 

“He’s pretty sick. He still does use his brain,” Wentzel said. “He listens to audiobooks. He’s a genius. He’s super smart. I love him.”

This article has been updated with additional information on the life of Carter.