AUGUST 1, 2024:
ATLANTA (AP) — Former President Jimmy Carter will be honored next month, ahead of his 100th birthday, with a musical gala at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, The Carter Center announced Thursday.
The Sept. 17 event — “Jimmy Carter 100: A Celebration in Song” — will feature musicians from a range of genres and celebrity guests. Carter’s birthday is Oct. 1.
Artists include Chuck Leavell, D-Nice, Drive-By Truckers, Eric Church, GROUPLOVE, Maren Morris and The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chamber Chorus. Notable guests include former Atlanta Braves star Dale Murphy, Atlanta rap artist Killer Mike and actor Sean Penn. Other guests will be announced before the event, organizers said.
The 39th president, who served from 1977 to 1981, remains at his home in Plains, Georgia, where he has been receiving hospice care since February 2023. He was last seen publicly at funeral services for former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who died in November. But those close to him say he remains in good spirits, sometimes receiving visitors, regularly watching Braves games on television and still enjoying music.
“Whether it was on his record players, on the campaign trail, or on the White House lawn, music has been and continues to be a source of joy, comfort and inspiration for my grandfather,” Jason Carter said in a statement.
Jason Carter chairs the governing board at the Carter Center, the human rights organization that Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter launched in 1982, not long after leaving the White House.
The program at the Fox is expected to celebrate the Carters’ work advocating for human rights, public health and democracy around the world.
Tickets will cost $100 and will go on sale through the Fox Theatre box office at 10 a.m. on Aug. 5. Proceeds will benefit The Carter Center.
Separately, The Carter Center is soliciting messages for the former president from the public that will be fashioned into a digital mosaic, similar to what the center did for his 99th birthday celebration.
OCTOBER 2, 2023:
ATLANTA (AP) — Jimmy Carter put off his usual Sunday (Oct. 1, 2023) practice of watching church services online to instead celebrate his 99th birthday with his wife, Rosalynn, and their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in Plains. The gathering will take place in the same one-story structure where the Carters lived before he was first elected as a state senator in 1962. Carter’s family views it as a way to honor his personal legacy. But tributes have come from around the world, with celebrities and political figures wearing “Jimmy Carter 99” caps as they offer video messages to the former president. The Jimmy Carter Library & Museum and The Carter Center hosted a full weekend of festivities, including a naturalization ceremony Sunday for 99 new U.S. citizens on Sunday.
AUGUST 18, 2023:
ATLANTA (AP) — Rosalynn Carter is celebrating her 96th birthday at home with her husband, former President Jimmy Carter, and other family members, while the surrounding community commemorates the former first lady’s years of public health advocacy. Family and aides say she expects a quiet celebration Friday in Plains, Georgia. She plans to release butterflies and eat peanut butter ice cream, a nod to the couple’s experience as peanut farmers. She is the second-oldest presidential spouse in U.S. history and has dementia. Jimmy Carter is the longest-lived president and remains under home hospice care. They marked their 77th wedding anniversary in July.
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