Former President Jimmy Carter will rest in peace alongside his late wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter, with the two buried together at the modest Georgia home they shared for decades.
Jimmy, the nation’s 39th president, died on Sunday, Dec. 29 at the age of 100 in Plains, the Carter Center announced on X.
He spent the year in hospice care at home, unable to see outside visitors, though he made appearances at Rosalynn’s star-studded tribute service in Atlanta in Nov. 2023 and, one day later, at her private funeral service in Plains. Carter was also able to fulfill a final wish this past November, casting a vote for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
Related: All About Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter’s Modest Georgia Home, Where They’ve Lived for 60 Years and Will Be Buried
Even after their four years in the White House, Jimmy and Rosalyn never moved from the modest Georgia home they built in 1961.
Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty
The ranch house, located in their hometown of Plains, in Sumter County, features a pond Jimmy helped dig and a magnolia tree transplanted from a sprout from a tree that Andrew Jackson planted on the lawn of the White House nearly 200 years ago.
In 2018, the Washington Post reported that the two-bedroom residence, then assessed at $167,000, was “less than the value of the armored Secret Service vehicles parked outside.” Zillow currently estimates the house to be worth about $240,000.
The couple’s gravestones will be by a willow tree at the edge of the pond. The Carters deeded the property to the National Park Service, which will turn the grounds into a museum after their deaths.
Jimmy, who served as the 39th U.S. president from 1977 to 1981, and Rosalynn, a lifelong mental health and human rights advocate, maintained an unpretentious lifestyle that included flying commercial and taking regular walks down Church Street, the town’s main drag. Jimmy taught Sunday school at Plains’ Maranatha Baptist Church for decades.
Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2011, the couple’s grandson Jason Carter said, “They built their house in the 1960s, and they almost haven’t changed a thing. They were super excited — legitimately excited! — when the Dollar General store opened in Plains. They buy their clothes there.”
Related: Jimmy Carter, 99, Makes Rare Appearance at Late Wife Rosalynn Carter’s Memorial Service
The former president and first lady shared a storybook romance that began when they were just kids — Rosalynn, a newborn and Jimmy, three years old and visiting the hospital with his parents.
The former first lady and former president even coined a sweet phrase they shared with each other: “ILYTG.”
“‘I love you the goodest.’ That’s what my mother and daddy used to say back and forth, and I picked it up with Rosa,” the nation’s 39th president told PEOPLE back in 2014. “Now all our children do the same thing – ILYTG on the phone or in emails. They generally just put the initials.”
The couple shared sons John William “Jack,” James Earl “Chip,” Donnel Jeffrey “Jeff” and daughter Amy Carter. Between their four adult children, there are 22 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Read the original article on People
