Jimmy Carter, who has d.i.e.d at the age of 100, was the first American president to be born in a hospital and the first to kiss the Queen Mother on the lips
Former President Jimmy Carter, who has just passed away at the age of 100 in hospice at his Georgia home, was once remembered for a significant faux pas in Royal etiquette during an encounter with the Queen Mother.
In May 1977, while staying at Buckingham Palace before a NATO summit at the invitation of Queen Elizabeth II, President Carter famously broke protocol by kissing the Queen Mother, Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, on the lips.
The Queen Mother, who died in March 2002, reportedly did not appreciate President Carter’s unconventional greeting.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate spent his last months in his birthplace and passed away this afternoon.
The Carter Center confirmed his passing with a statement on X: “Our founder, former US President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia.”, reports the Express US.
As tributes pour in following his d.e.a.th at 100, it’s clear that America’s 39th president is revered more for his post-presidential deeds than his time in office.
Surpassing former President George H. W. Bush, who died four months earlier, Carter became the longest-living U. S. president in March 2019.
Despite suffering one of the most resounding defeats in modern presidential history, Carter, affectionately dubbed ‘Jimmy Cardigan’ after wearing a sweater during a televised address, is among the rare U. S. presidents to be celebrated while still alive.
The legacy of the former president evolved in an unusual way, with a long gap between the end of his unpopular presidency and the recent announcement that he would cease further treatment to pass away peacefully at home.
Carter’s tenure in the White House was marked by his struggles to address significant challenges, including a severe energy crisis, high inflation, and unemployment.
He assumed office after Gerald Ford left the entire US government in chaos.
Upon entering the Oval Office, Carter faced escalating challenges – an energy crisis, Soviet aggression, and above all, a profound distrust of leadership among voters.
In international affairs, he reestablished US relations with China and attempted to mediate peace in the historic Arab-Israeli conflict, but his term was marred towards the end by a hostage crisis in Iran.
Before his passing today, Carter had been defying illness and d.e.a.th for years.
When his melanoma metastasized to his brain in 2015, he was commended for publicly announcing it.
Even while undergoing treatment, he continued to teach Sunday school at his hometown’s Baptist church. Within months, he announced that he was cancer-free.
Four years later, Carter fell at least three times, once breaking a hip and another time requiring 14 stitches. Each time he recovered, even participating in a Habitat for Humanity home-building project shortly after one fall.
However, he has gradually withdrawn from the public eye, making fewer appearances and statements, and was notably absent from President Biden’s inauguration in January 2021.
Despite this, he managed to outlive two of his successors and his own vice president, Walter Mondale.
