ANDREW LIMBONG, HOST:
The 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter, has died. He entered hospice almost two years ago on February 18, 2023. The former governor was president from 1977 to 1981 and remained involved in world politics long after leaving office as an advocate for international peace, democracy and human rights. Our own Stephen Fowler is on from Georgia. He's outside the Carter Center. Hey, Stephen.
STEPHEN FOWLER, BYLINE: Hey there.
LIMBONG: Hey. So you're outside the Carter Center now, tell us about the scene. What have you noticed?
FOWLER: So I'm outside of the Carter Center in Atlanta. It's the Carter Presidential Library. In a lot of ways, it's a lot like his legacy - kind of understated, behind the scenes. There's a steady stream of Atlanta traffic going by. Somebody just came by, dropped off a jar of peanut butter and lit a candle because Jimmy Carter was the peanut farmer from Plains. And there's going to be several days of remembrances and events in Georgia, in Plains, where Carter's from, and in Washington, D.C. So things for now are quiet.
LIMBONG: Yeah. So there are two big chapters to Carter's legacy. There's his presidency and all that came after. Let's start with his come up into office.
FOWLER: And he was born a century ago in the small town of Plains. He served in the Navy. He ran his family's peanut farm, was a state senator before becoming Georgia's governor in 1971. He was an unknown when he decided to run for president. I mean, people called him Jimmy Who at the time. There was this grassroots effort, the Peanut Brigade, with his family and friends and others that really were his campaign caucusers (ph) going and getting people behind his campaign. And he was this dependable Southerner who wanted to be president. And as you know, he was then elected.
LIMBONG: Yeah. You know, his time in the White House, which culminated in a loss to Ronald Reagan, it was defined by crises, yeah?
FOWLER: Yeah, Carter's time in office was a time of crisis. I mean, he's known now as a humanitarian waging peace, but when he was president, he had a difficult road. He helped broker a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. He tried to bring the nation together in the wake of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal. But he was president during a major economic crisis, inflation. He was a deeply, deeply unpopular president, one of the most unpopular presidents in the last several decades. And at the end of this term, there was the Iran hostage crisis, which was ultimately part of what led to his loss.
LIMBONG: Yeah. Now let's talk about his post-presidency, which is - you know, you could argue that's what made him such a beloved figure in the United States, around the world, right?
FOWLER: Yeah. He did more in his time and his decades out of office than in his four years in the White House. I'm at the Carter Center, where he was known for waging peace through things like fighting diseases. He monitored democracy and elections across the world. He fought for equality and human rights, and he worked for Habitat for Humanity, building houses and volunteering well up into his advanced age. And so Jimmy Carter's time out of the White House is something that is going to be a lasting legacy far beyond his time in the White House, but, you know, I'm here at the Carter Center. People are beginning to come by and pay their respects to the century-long life and legacy of the former president.
LIMBONG: That was NPR's Stephen Fowler on the legacy of former President Jimmy Carter, who has died at the age of 100. Stephen, thank you so much.
FOWLER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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