The yacht, named after Sequoyah, a leader of the Cherokee Nation, measured 104 feet long. In its heyday, it had elegant cabins of mahogany and teak with brass finishings.

The US government bought it from a Texas oil tycoon in 1931 for $200,000, and it was soon reserved for use by presidents.

The vessel was berthed at Washington Navy Yard, a short drive from the White House.

Hoover was so enamored of the Sequoia he even used a picture of it on his 1932 Christmas card.

However, at a time when many Americans were suffering from unemployment and poverty due to the Great Depression, the card drew criticism from political opponents.

In the president's bedroom cabin, the presidential seal decorated the wall above the bed and the bedspread.

It was ideal for hosting family gatherings, or meetings with foreign leaders and their staff.

President Harry Truman added the piano to the salon after becoming president in 1945.

Lyndon Baines Johnson later added a drinks bar.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who used a wheelchair for much of his presidency, had an elevator installed so he could access each deck.

According to legend, he also decommissioned the vessel so he and Prime Minister Winston Churchill could enjoy alcoholic drinks on deck while they planned their strategy in World War II.

At the time, no alcohol was permitted on US Navy vessels.

The vessel was intended as a place presidents could use as a private retreat, and there are no official records of its guests. As a result, rumors have long circulated about what took place on board.

In June 1973, President Richard Nixon hosted Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev on the Sequoia, where the two negotiated the SALT-1 nuclear arms treaty.

It was Nixon who embarked on more trips on the boat than any other president, taking more than 100 in total.

During the Watergate crisis, he used the boat as a refuge.

Nixon told his family of his intention to resign the presidency over dinner on the Sequoia before retiring to the boat's saloon to drink scotch and play "God Bless America" on Truman's piano, CBS News reported.

On May 29, 1963, President John F Kennedy celebrated his 46th birthday aboard the Sequoia.

Among the guests for the dinner-party cruise were actors David Niven and Rat Pack member Peter Lawford, who was married to Kennedy's sister.

His brother Bobby Kennedy, the attorney general, was among the family who attended, alongside select members of Washington high society.

Guests described the event to The Washington Post as a raucous party, with French cuisine, flowing Champagne, and the president even making a pass at the wife of a party guest, a prominent journalist.

The birthday party was to be his last. Seven months later, Kennedy was assassinated on an official visit to Dallas.

Johnson would use a projector to watch Western films on board the ship.

He also used the Sequoia as a retreat to cajole potential allies and formulate policy.

On board, he hosted members of Congress whom he lobbied over his landmark civil rights bill and strategized with officials as the US became further mired in the Vietnam War.

"Of course, he can get on a plane and go to Florida or anywhere else, but that requires throwing the machinery into motion," Kissinger told Newsweek in 2012. "But here, he just can say at 5 o'clock: 'I'm going to the boat, I'm taking four or five people. And you don't have to call it a meeting and you don't have to prepare the papers.'"

When Carter took office in 1977, he sought to make good on his election pledge to strip the White House of the trappings of an "imperial presidency."

With running costs totaling $800,000 a year, the Sequoia had to go.

The New York Times reported it sold to a private buyer, Thomas Malloy, for $286,000, or almost $1.5 million in today's money, when adjusted for inflation. Malloy turned the boat into a tourist attraction.

Later, Carter revealed that selling the vessel was a decision he came to regret.

"People thought I was not being reverent enough to the office I was holding, that I was too much of a peanut farmer, not enough of an aristocrat, or something like that. So I think that shows that the American people want something of, an element of, image of monarchy in the White House," he told the JFK presidential library in a 2011 interview.

After its sale, the presidential yacht had a succession of owners.

It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987, spent the '90s in a shipyard, and ran chartered cruises until 2014.

However, the Sequoia fell into disrepair in subsequent years amid a legal battle over its ownership. It sat decaying in a Virginia dry dock, overrun by raccoons.

Its current owner, investor Michael Cantor, began restoring the vessel in 2019 and plans to house it at the Richardson Maritime Centre in Maryland when the work is complete, Boat International reported.

In 1973, Arab countries that were part of OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) imposed an oil embargo on the United States in retaliation for their military support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War. As a result, gas prices skyrocketed and shortages caused long lines at gas stations. While the embargo ended in 1974, it exposed the vulnerabilities of US reliance on foreign oil.

In response to the 1973 energy crisis, Carter created the Department of Energy in 1977. He implemented tax credits for homeowners who installed solar panels and passed the National Energy Act into law in 1978, moving to reduce oil imports and promote energy conservation.

In his speech, Carter emphasized the importance of "harnessing the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil."

"Today, in directly harnessing the power of the sun, we're taking the energy that God gave us, the most renewable energy that we will ever see, and using it to replace our dwindling supplies of fossil fuels," Carter said in his speech.

Reagan moved to fulfill his campaign promise to abolish the Department of Energy in 1981, but he walked back his effort in 1985 due to insufficient support in Congress. He allowed Carter's solar-panel tax credits to expire in 1985, instead championing nuclear-power initiatives.

He also believed in allowing free-market capitalism to dictate the production and use of fossil fuels rather than government regulations, a policy that became known as "Reaganomics."

Carter's solar panels were removed during repairs to the White House roof and were not reinstalled. 

"Putting them back up would be very unwise, based on cost," Reagan's White House press secretary Dale Petroskey told the Associated Press at the time, according to Yale Climate Connections.

The White House remained without solar panels until 2002, when the National Park Service installed three solar energy systems that provided hot water for grounds maintenance staff and the White House pool, according to the White House Historical Association.

In 2017, Carter leased 10 acres of his farmland in Plains, Georgia, to the solar energy company SolAmerica Energy, The New York Times reported. The company built 3,852 solar panels, enough to provide more than half of the power for the 683-person town.

"It's very special to me because I was so disappointed when the panels came off of the White House, and now to see them in Plains is just terrific," former first lady Rosalynn Carter told The New York Times.

The 30-acre campus houses The Carter Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to conflict resolution, eradicating diseases, and promoting human rights around the world. The grounds also contain a restaurant, non-denominational chapel, reception hall, and meeting rooms for retreats and training sessions.

The Bible that Carter was sworn in on. The "red phone" that sat on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office that he used to communicate with the US military in crisis. Presidential speeches with Carter's handwritten notes. I figured there would be some notable artifacts at the presidential library and museum, but I didn't realize just how many and how significant they would be.

Carter grew up in the small farming town of Plains, Georgia, which is about 150 miles south of the presidential library in Atlanta. In a section about Carter's youth, a display case held Carter's sixth-grade report card, high-school diploma, class ring, and an essay that earned him an "A." I loved that the museum focused on his childhood, as well as his presidency.

The replica was designed to look exactly like the Oval Office did during Carter's presidency, complete with the same pink, gold, and green striped couches and oval-shaped rug.

In the audio tour of the room, Carter said that people would often walk into the magnificent office and feel so awestruck that they'd forget what they were going to say. Even though it was just a recreation of the actual room, I could feel the same gravitas.

Sheen narrated an introductory video at the museum's entrance and the "Day in the Life of the President" exhibit, which chronicled Carter's schedule of meetings and memos on December 11, 1978.

Sheen told Empire magazine that President Bartlet in "The West Wing" was partially inspired by Carter as well as John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton.

"We wanted to represent the very best that we had in that office in recent history and those three men covered all of the territory that Bartlet would inhabit," he said.

This was my first visit to a presidential library, but it won't be my last. I'm determined to collect stamps from all 15 across the US.

Carter lived at the farm from the age of 4 until he departed for college in 1941. Carter's family didn't have running water until he turned 11, and they didn't get electricity until three years later.

"The greatest day in my life was not being inaugurated president, [and] it wasn't even marrying Rosalynn — it was when they turned the electricity on," Carter said, according to the New York Times.

Carter received a bachelor's from the United States Naval Academy in 1946 and served as a submariner in the United States Navy before entering politics. When he became president in 1977, he put the farm into a blind trust, allowing a third party to take control of it while he was in the White House, avoiding any conflicts of interest, according to the National Park Service.

When he left the White House in 1981, the law firm managing the trust revealed the farm was $1 million in debt due to drought and changes in management, and the Carters sold it, the National Park Service said. 

As a living museum, visitors can press buttons located throughout the historical site to hear recordings of Jimmy Carter's experience growing up on the farm, and guided tours are also available on weekends.

The farm is located in Archery, Georgia, about 3 miles from the nearby town of Plains.

Many of the farm's original buildings, from Earl Carter's commissary to Carter's childhood home, have been preserved.

Visitors can also tour the Clark home, once occupied by tenants Jack and Rachel Clark who worked on the Carter farm.

The official Jimmy Carter website wrote that Carter spent a lot of time with the Clarks growing up, to the point where the Clarks set up a sleeping pallet filled with either corn shucks or wheat straw that he would sleep on when his parents were out of town. 

In 1994, the National Park Service purchased Carter's three-bedroom childhood home and 17 acres of the once 360-acre farm to create the historical site. 

The furnishings inside the home were never owned by the Carters, but they were chosen to reflect the time period and are similar to what would have been used when the Carters lived there. 

In addition to a more formal dining room, visitors can tour the family's kitchen, breakfast room, living room, the bedroom of Jimmy Carter's parents, Earl and Lillian, and the bedroom his two sisters, Gloria and Ruth, shared at the farmhouse. 

Carter also had a younger brother, Billy, who slept in their parents' room until Jimmy left the farm for college in 1941.

Carter continued to enjoy the sport throughout his life, especially during his tenure at the White House, but it was here where he first learned the game during matches with his father.

The commissary was run by Earl Carter in order to make extra money, provide his tenants and the residents of Archery a place to buy needed supplies, and sell gas to passing motorists, according to the National Park Service.

The store wasn't always open during standard work hours, but Earl Carter would make sure to open it — or ask Jimmy to open it — in order to make a sale.

The property is still an active farm, and crops are still grown periodically throughout the year. Some of the crops still grown on the farm include sugarcane, cotton, corn, tomatoes, and peanuts.

Honeybees, goats, chickens, mules, and farm cats also call the Boyhood Farm home.

Carter built the ranch-style home in 1961. Rosalynn died in November 2023 at 96 years old. Jimmy Carter died in December 2024 at 100 years old.

"My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love," Chip Carter, the former president's son, said in a statement shared by The Carter Center. "My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs."

Jeff Clements, a part-owner of the Buffalo Peanut Company, a commercial peanut sheller and seed treater that owns what was once the Carter family's warehouse, previously told The New York Times that "you wouldn't have the downtown atmosphere that you have" in Plains without Carter. Clements also commended Carter's humanitarian work.

"The fact he was still willing to be a Christian and act in a Christian way and not be afraid to do so in today's time," he said, "that's more so his legacy than anything he did while he was president."

Jimmy and Rosalynn's families were friends and neighbors growing up in Plains, Georgia. The two began dating in 1945, while Rosalynn was a student at Georgia Southwestern College and while Jimmy was enrolled at the US Naval Academy.

After their first date, Jimmy told his mother, "She's the girl I want to marry," according to the White House.

They wed on July 7, 1946.

Rosalynn served as the honorary chair of the President's Commission on Mental Health from 1977 to 1978, which helped pass the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980.

After her time in the White House, she remained active in humanitarian work with the establishment of the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers and a longtime partnership with Habitat for Humanity. She also wrote five books.

In May 2023, The Carter Center shared that Rosalynn had dementia. She celebrated her 96th birthday that August, and she died a few months later on November 19, 2023.

Her funeral in Atlanta was attended by all living first ladies as well as President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, former president Bill Clinton, and members of Congress.

The Carters have 25 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, The Carter Center said in a statement following Rosalynn's death.

Jack and his first wife, Judy Langford, had two children. Their son Jason James, born in 1975, was a toddler when Carter took office in 1977. Their daughter, Sarah Rosemary, was born in 1978. They eventually divorced, and he married Elizabeth Brasfield in 1992, gaining two stepchildren.

In 2006, Jack ran for a Nevada seat in the US Senate, the first major office the Carter family has sought since 1980. He earned the Democratic nomination, but was unsuccessful against an incumbent Republican senator in the general election.

Jack holds a law degree from the University of Georgia, but he spent most of his career in the investment and finance industry, The New York Times reported.

Chip worked as vice president, then president and CEO at Friendship Force, a not-for-profit that organized international exchanges for adult homestays. He also served as a member of Plains City Council in Georgia.

He has been married three times and has a son, James Carter IV, and a daughter, Margaret Alicia Carter.

Jeff and his wife, Annette, met at Georgia Southwestern University. They married in 1975 during Carter's presidential campaign and lived in the White House for the first years of their marriage.

"While living in the White House, Jeff and Annette helped host everybody from Bob Dylan to Pope John Paul II," their son Josh wrote in Annette's obituary in September 2021. "In some of Annette's favorite White House memories, she greeted the cast of Star Wars after the release of 'A New Hope' and John Travolta after he starred in 'Saturday Night Fever' and 'Grease.' These experiences were quite extraordinary for Jeff and Annette's first few years of marriage."

Jeff co-founded Computer Mapping Consultants, a firm that became a consultancy for the World Bank in 1978 and held foreign government contracts, The Bryan Times reported.

He and Annette had three children together. In 2018, their 28-year-old son Jeremy died from a suspected heart attack.

Amy was 9 years old when her father's presidency began. She had a pet Siamese cat named Misty who accompanied her to Camp David and took up residence in her doll house.

Amy became a political activist in the '80s and '90s, and she was even arrested at a CIA recruitment protest, the Los Angeles Times reported. She later received a master's degree from Tulane in art history and wed computer consultant James Wentzel in 1996. At her wedding ceremony she was not given away, saying she did not belong to anyone, People magazine reported.

She had one child with Wentzel, a son named Hugo James Wentzel. They later divorced, and she married John Joseph "Jay" Kelly in 2007. They share another son, Errol Carter Kelly.

Amy worked with her dad on the 1995 children's book "The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer," which Jimmy wrote and she illustrated, about a boy who befriends a monster. She remains a board member of The Carter Center, but she has otherwise stayed out of public life.

Among their grandchildren is Jack's son Jason James Carter (pictured), a former Georgia state senator who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2014. 

His sister, Sarah Rosemary, earned a PhD in neuroscience from the University of California San Francisco in 2007 and works as the principal at Science Policy Consulting LLC, according to her LinkedIn profile. 

Jack also has two stepchildren: Sarah Chuldenko, a painter, and John Chuldenko, a filmmaker.

Chip's son, James Carter IV, works as an opposition researcher. He made headlines during the 2012 presidential election, after he helped unearth the infamous "47%" video that ostracized nominee Mitt Romney, NPR reported. He later received a thank-you note from former President Barack Obama, CBS News reported.

Chip's daughter Margaret has remained out of the public eye.

Jeff's oldest son, Joshua Jeffery Carter, hosts a podcast called "Unchanging Principles," a reference to a line from Jimmy's inaugural address.

Jeff's youngest, James "Jamie" Carlton Carter, married his longtime girlfriend Anna in a backyard pandemic wedding in October 2021, then held a larger ceremony a year later at the Carter Center, according to their wedding website.

Amy's son, Hugo James Wentzel, and stepson, Errol Carter Kelly, have attended public events with their grandparents, but they have otherwise kept a low profile.

Correction: November 29, 2023 — An earlier version of this story misstated the number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren shared by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. They had 25 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, not 22.

Three-year-old Jimmy met Rosalynn Smith when she was just a newborn. Lillian Carter, Jimmy's mother, worked as a nurse and helped deliver Rosalynn.

Jimmy's younger sister, Ruth, became best friends with Rosalynn. In the 2020 book "What Makes a Marriage Last" by Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue, Rosalynn shared that Jimmy's sister is in part responsible for their relationship.

"I always said I fell in love with a photograph of him on her [Ruth's] bedroom wall," Rosalynn said.

"Ruth and I plotted to get me together with [Jimmy]. She'd call and say 'Come over! He's here!' and I'd go flying over to her house, but he'd be gone again," she told the authors.

Before his final year at the Naval Academy, and before Rosalynn's second year of college, the future couple went on their first date.

"I was cruising around with my sister Ruth and her boyfriend, just looking for a date, and I picked up Rosalynn in front of the Methodist church," he told the authors for "What Makes a Marriage Last."

The two then went out to the movies. "I kissed her on that first date. I remember that vividly," he said in the book.

He also recalled telling his mother the next morning that Rosalynn would be his wife one day.

"Rosalynn was the one I wanted to marry," he said.

Less than a year after their first date, Jimmy asked Rosalynn to marry him. She initially rejected his proposal, because she wanted to prioritize completing her education. 

Later that year, in May 1946, he proposed to her again. This time, she said yes.

The couple tied the knot when Jimmy was 21 and Rosalynn was just 19. They got married in Plains, Georgia, at a Methodist church.

Rosalynn gave birth to their first child, Jack, in Portsmouth, Virginia, in 1947 while Jimmy was still serving in the US Navy. 

Jack went to law school at the University of Georgia, and he later ran for senate in Nevada in 2006. Although he succeeded in becoming the Democratic nominee, he lost against the Republican incumbent.

Chip was born in Honolulu, where Carter was stationed with the Navy at the time.

After working on his family's peanut farm, Chip Carter served on the city council in Plains and later worked on the Democratic National Committee. He then worked at Friendship Force, a nonprofit organization focused on building international connections between people.

He was born in New London, Connecticut.

Jeff spent the first years of his marriage to his wife, Annette, living in the White House.

In 1978, he graduated from George Washington University, where he studied geography with a specialty in computer cartography. Later, he became a co-founder of Computer Mapping Consultants, the Bryan Times reported.

After his father died in July 1953, Jimmy Carter left the Navy to move his family back to Plains, where he worked for the family's peanut farm.

"We developed a partnership when we were working in the farm supply business, and it continued when Jimmy got involved in politics," Rosalynn told the Associated Press in 2021. "I knew more on paper about the business than he did. He would take my advice about things."

Once home, Carter eventually turned his attention to politics, serving as a Georgia state senator from 1963 to 1967.

In addition to being the only daughter of Jimmy and Rosalynn, Amy is the only Carter child who spent their younger years in the White House.

She initially attended Brown University, but she eventually completed her bachelor's degree at Memphis College of Art in 1991 before earning her master's in art history from Tulane University in 1996, The Washington Post reported. She is now a board member for The Carter Center.

Carter served as the governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1957. During her time as the first lady of Georgia, Rosalynn focused on helping Georgians suffering from mental health issues. She served on the Governor's Commission to Improve Services to the Mentally and Emotionally Handicapped.

Jason James Carter was born in 1975 to parents Jack Carter and Julie Langford. In 2010, Jason James Carter was elected to the Georgia Senate, although his grandfather didn't campaign for him until just before the election.

"I needed to be more than Jimmy Carter's grandson and I needed to be sure that I could introduce myself and my vision for this state in an effective way," Jason James Carter told ABC News in 2010.

In 2014, he followed in his grandfather's footsteps and ran for governor of Georgia, albeit unsuccessfully. 

James Carter IV, the son of Chip and Caron Carter, also works in politics as an opposition researcher.

The Carters have a total of 25 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Carter announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on December 12, 1974. Rosalynn was on board from the beginning.

"My wife is much more political," he told the Associated Press in 2021.

She added, "I love it. I love campaigning. I had the best time. I was in all the states in the United States."

The White House's official website says Rosalynn's "belief in her husband's ability to lead the nation was communicated in a quiet, friendly manner that made her an effective campaigner."

Carter defeated incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford to win the presidency.

At the 1977 presidential inauguration, the couple shared a kiss after Carter was sworn in as the 39th president of the United States in Washington, DC.

As the first lady, Rosalynn focused on mental health advocacy. For one year, between 1977 and 1978, she was the honorary chairperson of the President's Commission on Mental Health. In this role, she oversaw a team of social workers, doctors, and lobbyists to enact policy change related to issues of mental illness.

Rosalynn was a political activist whose guidance Carter frequently solicited on both foreign and domestic policy decisions.

In 1979, then-President Carter announced that he would run for reelection. "Let us commit ourselves together to a rebirth of the American spirit," he said in the last leg of his speech, before planting a kiss on Rosalynn's cheek.

He lost the 1980 election to his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan.

In a discussion about the then-upcoming 1984 election with UPI, Rosalynn said, "I think the most important thing is to beat Reagan. I think it's a tragedy what he has done. I feel sorry for who follows him in office."

She praised the decisions her husband made while in office, saying, "Jimmy made the world a safer place with the Panama Canal Treaty, the Camp David agreement, and SALT 2."

In her memoir, "First Lady from Plains," she added, "I would be out there campaigning right now if Jimmy would run again. I miss the world of politics."

"I'd like people to know that we were right, that what Jimmy Carter was doing was best for our country, and that people made a mistake by not voting for him," she wrote.

After Carter lost the 1980 election, the couple moved back to Plains, Georgia, in January 1981.

In 2018, The Washington Post reported that Carter is the only president in recent history to return to the house he lived in before the White House. The couple moved back to the ranch-style home they'd built, which was valued at $167,000 — less than the cost of the Secret Service armored cars that follow him around. 

The Carter Center aims to increase human rights, put an end to human suffering, and promote democracy worldwide. Included in The Carter Center's provisions is a Mental Health Program, which aimed to continue the work that Rosalynn started while her husband held office.

Thirty years after its founding, in 2012, the Carters were interviewed by Georgia Trend, and the former president discussed his intentions for the organization.

"I imagined something like a small Camp David, where a nation that had a civil war going on or where a civil war might break out, could come, and we would negotiate between the two opposing sides to try to bring peace, or prevent a war," he said.

The accomplishments of the organization, such as monitoring elections around the world and nearly eradicating the Guinea worm disease, exceeded the couple's wishes.

"But we never dreamed when we started 30 years ago that we'd be involved in elections around the world — no one had ever done it before. And we never dreamed that we'd get involved in tropical, neglected diseases, and that has become the overwhelming thing we do," he said.

After helping on a project in Americus, Georgia — 10 miles from their hometown, Plains — the Carters "quickly realized that our mission closely aligned with their values," according to Habitat for Humanity.

Later that year, the couple established the Carter Work Project — it would later become known as the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project — by helping renovate a building in New York City.

According to the organization, the Carters have since worked alongside 104,000 volunteers in 14 countries to build and repair more than 4,300 homes.

When asked in the joint People interview for the secret to a long marriage, Rosalynn said, "I'd say space. One of the hardest times was when we came home from the White House. It was the first time we'd been together in the house all day every day. So I got my office in what was a bedroom, and his is in what was the garage."

As for his secrets to a long life, Carter credited exercise and his wife's cooking.

"I exercise and eat right," he said. "My wife is an expert dietitian and a good cook."

Rosalynn added, "I fix fruits and vegetables. Cereal. He never turns down ice cream."

In 2019, Carter became the longest-living president in US history. George H.W. Bush, who died in 2018, had lived until 94.

"It's hard to live until you're 95 years old," Carter told People magazine. "I think the best explanation for that is to marry the best spouse: someone who will take care of you and engage and do things to challenge you and keep you alive and interested in life."

The Carters continued to make appearances at high-profile political events including Democratic National Conventions and presidential inaugurations — the last inauguration they attended was Donald Trump's in 2017. The couple also publicly supported Democratic candidates, including Raphael Warnock in the 2020 Senate race. 

"President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter's legacy as human rights champions and humanitarians is an inspiration to us all," Warnock wrote on Facebook following the endorsement.

"At the end of the day, we try to become reconciled and overcome all the differences that arose during the day," he said in a 2021 interview with PBS.

"We also make up and give each other a kiss before we go to sleep still in bed. And we always read the Bible every night, which adds a different aspect to life. So, we really try to become completely reconciled each night before we go to sleep," Carter added.

In their 2014 interview with People, Carter confirmed they had been reading to each other every night for 40 years.

In a statement in February 2023, the Carter Center said he "has the full support of his family and his medical team" while receiving at-home hospice care.

In May 2023, their grandson Jason Carter said Carter remained in good spirits and was enjoying peanut-butter ice cream, the Associated Press reported.

"The Carter family is sharing that former First Lady Rosalynn Carter has dementia," the organization wrote in a statement on its website in May 2023. "She continues to live happily at home with her husband, enjoying spring in Plains and visits with loved ones."

It added, "We hope sharing our family's news will increase important conversations at kitchen tables and in doctor's offices around the country."

In a statement, the Carter Center wrote that Rosalynn Carter died "peacefully, with her family by her side" at home in Plains, Georgia.

"Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished," Jimmy Carter said of his wife of 77 years. "She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me."

At Rosalynn Carter's memorial service in Atlanta, Carter attended the event with a blanket over his legs embroidered with images of himself and Rosalynn, captioned "The Carters."

The blanket's design also honored their hometown with the words "Plains, Georgia, Est. 1855" and dogwood flowers that grow throughout Georgia.

Carter slept at the Carter Center the night before the memorial service because "he never wants to be very far from her," Paige Smith, the Carter Center's CEO, told the Associated Press.

Carter died in Plains, Georgia, at the home he once shared with Rosalynn.

"My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love," Chip Carter said in a statement released by The Carter Center. "My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs."

Carter grew up on his family's 360-acre peanut farm in the nearby community of Archery.

His father, James Earl Carter, Sr., was a farmer and businessman, while his mother, Lillian Gordy Carter, was a registered nurse.

The New York Times reported that the Carters were also the only white family in town. Despite achieving status in a rural town with a population of only 200, the family grew up in relative poverty. 

Carter's family didn't have running water until he turned 11 and they didn't get electricity until three years later.

"The greatest day in my life was not being inaugurated president, [and] it wasn't even marrying Rosalynn — it was when they turned the electricity on," the Times reported Carter said.

At the time, the Naval Academy did not offer specialized degrees, but Carter later did graduate work in nuclear physics at Union College in Schenectady, New York.

Though they knew each other distantly as children, a mutual friend formally introduced them while Carter was attending the US Naval Academy.

They were married on July 7, 1946, shortly after he had graduated from the academy.

Carter and his wife Rosalynn held the record for the longest-married presidential couple. She died on November 19, 2023.

He rose to the rank of lieutenant officer and is one of 29 American presidents who have served in the armed forces.

He is pictured third from left in the front row.

After the farm began to falter in the late 1940s, Earl Carter sold the family's farmhouse and surrounding land in 1949. moving the family to nearby Plains. However, after Jimmy Carter returned home and bought back the farm, the business became widely successful under his leadership.

In addition to the peanut farm, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter operated Carter's Warehouse, a general-purpose seed and farm supply company in Plains, Georgia. 

The Carters had four children: Jack, born in 1947; James, born in 1950; Donnel, born in 1952; and Amy, born in 1967. 

The Miller Center reported that Carter served as chairman of the county school board and later became the first president of the Georgia Planning Association. In 1962, he was elected to the Georgia Senate. He attempted to run for governor in 1966 but was defeated. 

Carter served on multiple committees as governor and became the Democratic National Committee campaign chairman for the 1974 congressional and gubernatorial elections.

Carter, pictured with his family in 1976, won his party's nomination on the first ballot at the 1976 Democratic National Convention. 

Given that Carter had never held a national office before announcing his candidacy for president, many American voters had never heard of the Georgia politician when he launched his campaign. 

The Miller Center reported that a Georgia newspaper even ran a front-page headline that read, "Jimmy Who Is Running For What!?" after Carter announced his candidacy. 

However, a grassroots campaign team hailing from Plains, nicknamed "The Peanut Brigade," helped launch Carter as an outsider completely separated from the scandals of the previous Nixon administration. 

His campaign slogans focused on Carter's image as an everyday American, choosing phrases like "America Needs Carter, A Man of the Soil" and "Jimmy Carter For All of Us."

Carter chose Walter Mondale, a United States senator from Minnesota, as his vice presidential running mate.

In 1973, Ford was appointed to the vice presidency by Richard Nixon and confirmed by Congress under provisions of the 25th Amendment after Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigned. Less than a year later, in August 1974, Nixon himself resigned, and Ford became president.

He was not a popular president, largely due to the aftermath of the Watergate Scandal and the Vietnam War. He also awarded Nixon a full pardon shortly after assuming office, which proved to be a controversial decision. 

Carter won with 297 electoral votes, a majority stemming from the Southern and Northern states, while Ford secured 240 votes.

"I pray that I won't disappoint the American people," President Carter told Walters in the December 1976 interview.

"This inauguration ceremony marks a new beginning, a new dedication within our government, and a new spirit among us all. A President may sense and proclaim that new spirit, but only a people can provide it," Carter said in his inaugural address. 

"You have given me a great responsibility — to stay close to you, to be worthy of you, and to exemplify what you are. Let us create together a new national spirit of unity and trust. Your strength can compensate for my weakness, and your wisdom can help to minimize my mistakes," he continued.

"Let us learn together and laugh together and work together and pray together, confident that in the end, we will triumph together in the right. The American dream endures. We must once again have full faith in our country — and in one another. I believe America can be better. We can be even stronger than before."

At the inauguration ceremony, Linda Ronstadt performed a cover of Willie Nelson's "Crazy," and Aretha Franklin performed "God Bless America."

The national anthem was performed by Cantor Isaac Goodfriend of Atlanta, a Holocaust survivor.

Carter famously broke royal protocol when he kissed the Queen Mother on the lips during his visit in 1977.

"I took a sharp step backwards – not quite far enough," the Queen Mother is said to have remarked after the encounter, according to Vogue.

After Queen Elizabeth passed away on September 8, 2022, Carter called her a "remarkable leader."

"Rosalynn and I extend our condolences to the family of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the citizens of the United Kingdom," he wrote in a statement. "Her dignity, graciousness, and sense of duty have been an inspiration, and we join the millions around the world in mourning a remarkable leader."

During his presidency, Carter created the Department of Education and the Department of Energy. The White House reported that he also appointed record numbers of women, African Americans, and Hispanics to federal positions.

Carter was also the first president to install solar panels on the roof of the White House, though they were later removed by his successor, Ronald Reagan.

In addition to his work in the environment, Carter also established diplomatic relations with China and helped negotiate peace between Egyptian and Israeli leaders at Camp David in 1978, a peace agreement that came to be known as the Camp David Accords.

Carter claimed an increase of nearly 8 million jobs during his term and a decrease in the budget deficit. However, despite his gains, Carter's leadership came under scrutiny as Americans continued to struggle with high inflation and unemployment rates, the White House reported. 

The Iran Hostage Crisis also marred his presidency. On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran and took 66 Americans captive. 

Thirteen of the captives were released on November 19 and 20, 1979, one was released on July 11, 1980, and the remaining 52 were released on January 20, 1981, over a year after they were initially captured, per the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.

Eight American servicemen and one Iranian civilian were killed during a failed secret mission, spearheaded by Carter in April 1980, to rescue the hostages.

"As our team was withdrawing, after my order to do so, two of our American aircraft collided on the ground following a refueling operation in a remote desert location in Iran," Carter said in a statement at the time.

"There was no fighting; there was no combat. But to my deep regret, eight of the crewmen of the two aircraft which collided were killed, and several other Americans were hurt in the accident," Carter continued. "Our people were immediately airlifted from Iran. Those who were injured have gotten medical treatment, and all of them are expected to recover."

All of the hostages were eventually returned safely home, but many criticized Carter's lack of military retaliation after the incident, the failed 1980 mission, and the resulting loss of life. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who had opposed the mission, resigned in protest after the incident. 

"I promised you four years ago that I would never lie to you. So, I can't stand here tonight and say it doesn't hurt," Carter said in his concession speech on November 4, 1980. 

"I've not achieved all I set out to do; perhaps no one ever does. But we have faced the tough issues. We've stood for, and we've fought for, and we have achieved some very important goals for our country," he continued.

"These efforts will not end with this administration. The effort must go on. Nor will the progress that we have made be lost when we leave office. The great principles that have guided this Nation since its very founding will continue to guide America through the challenges of the future."

Carter founded the Carter Center, a nongovernmental, nonprofit organization in Atlanta, in 1982 with the goal of advancing human rights and alleviating suffering.

CNN reported that it has promoted conflict resolution, supervised democratic elections abroad, and worked to combat diseases worldwide, including the near eradication of a tropical disease called Guinea worm.

It is adjacent to The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, which opened on October 1, 1986.

Following his presidency, the Carters returned to their ranch-style home in Plains, Georgia. The house costs less than the armored Secret Service cars that follow him around, The Washington Post reported in 2018.

Pictured, Jimmy Carter attended the wedding of his youngest child, Amy Carter, in 1996. The wedding, held at her family's Pond House estate in Plains, Georgia, was attended by 140 guests, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Through their joint work with Habitat for Humanity as part of the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project, the former president and first lady worked alongside 104,000 volunteers and built, renovated, and repaired 4, 390 homes in 14 countries. 

"Habitat provides a simple but powerful avenue for people of different backgrounds to come together to achieve those most meaningful things in life. A decent home, yes, but also a genuine bond with our fellow human beings. A bond that comes with the building up of walls and the breaking down of barriers," Carter said.

Carter was awarded the prestigious prize for "his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts," The Washington Post reported.

"God gives us a capacity for choice. We can choose to alleviate suffering. we can choose to work together for peace. We can make these changes and we must," Carter said in his acceptance speech.

They were seated alongside then-President Donald Trump, as well as former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. 

"Rosalynn and I are deeply saddened by the death of former President George H.W. Bush," Carter wrote in a statement following Bush's death on November 30, 2018. "His administration was marked by grace, civility, and social conscience."

The couple were married for 77 years, the longest of any presidential couple in history. 

On February 18, 2023, the Carter Center released a statement saying Carter, then 98, had chosen to stop receiving medical intervention and receive hospice care at home after "a series of short hospital stays."

Carter attended the funeral of his wife and former first lady Rosalynn Carter on November 29, 2023, in their hometown of Plains. She was 96 years old.

In 2015, Carter was diagnosed with melanoma, which later spread to four different parts of his brain. He received experimental treatment and went into remission, becoming cancer-free just four months later.

At a church service in late 2019, the then-95-year-old said that when he learned he had cancer at 90 years old, he assumed he was "going to die very quickly."

"I obviously prayed about it. I didn't ask God to let me live, but I asked God to give me a proper attitude toward death. And I found that I was absolutely and completely at ease with death," Carter said in 2019, CNN reported.

He died on December 29, 2024, in his Plains, Georgia home. At age 100, he was the nation's longest-lived president.

Here, FDR and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill fish in the woods around "Shangri La." The two men reportedly planned the D-Day invasion from a porch on one of the cabins.

Before taking office, Trump once told a German journalist in an interview, "Camp David is very rustic, it's nice, you'd like it. You know how long you'd like it? For about 30 minutes."

By August 2020, Trump had made 500 visits to his properties. Of those 500, Trump had visited Mar-A-Lago 134 times. 

Comparatively, Trump visited Camp David five times in his first year in office, according to USA Today. He visited his golf clubs 150 times in his first year. 

Sources: Washington Post, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, USA Today

Source: Reuters

He spent 72 hours at Camp David and cut his trip short to return to the White House and address the nation. 

Source: Washington Post

Source: CBS News

Source: Washington Examiner

President Joe Biden held a joint news conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, left, and then-Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at Camp David on August 18, 2023.

"This is the first summit I've hosted at Camp David as president. I can think of no more fitting location to begin the next era of cooperation," Biden said at the time. "In the months and years ahead, we're going to continue to seize those possibilities together — unwavering in our unity and unmatched in our resolve."

President Joe Biden leaned on his family during a difficult stretch of his campaign following his first debate with former President Donald Trump. (In July 2024, Biden stepped aside as the Democratic nominee, paving the way for the eventual nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris as the party's standard bearer.)

Trump won a second term in November 2024 and come January 2025, it'll once again be the president-elect's turn to utilize the retreat.

Editor's note: This story was first published in February 2018 and has been updated with recent information.

The name "Shangri-La" was the name of a fictional kingdom in the book "The Lost Horizon" by James Hilton.

The retreat center was originally built in 1938 as a summer camp for use by government employees as part of The New Deal's Works Progress Administration, so it wasn't equipped for chilly weather.

David Eisenhower was 5 years old when his grandfather named the presidential retreat after him. Today, David Eisenhower works as the director of the Institute for Public Service and a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication.

Aspen has four bedrooms, a kitchen, an office, and a patio.

The helicopter flight from the White House to Camp David takes around 30 minutes, according to Eisenhower's presidential library.

There is also a second pool further out on the grounds.

Camp David measures 180 acres and includes miles of walking trails through the Catoctin Mountains.

President Jimmy Carter convened Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at Camp David in 1978, where the leaders negotiated a peace treaty between the two countries.

Plaid and wicker furniture were popular decor trends in the 1970s.

FDR was the first US president to deliver fireside chats over the radio in 1933. Reagan brought them back in 1982, and every president since has continued the tradition except for President-elect Donald Trump, who stopped recording weekly addresses about two years into his first term.

Reagan held a groundbreaking ceremony for the chapel at Camp David in 1988, and George H.W. Bush dedicated the space during his presidency in 1991.

George H.W. Bush revisited the chapel to celebrate Easter in 2006 during the presidency of his son, President George W. Bush.

President George W. Bush had a placard made for his golf cart labeling it "Golf Cart One," a reference to Air Force One. He drove it during visits to Camp David in 2006, 2007, and 2008.

Leaders from the UK, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, and France joined Obama at Camp David in 2012 to discuss the European debt crisis.

Camp David also has a bowling alley and a movie theater.

Trump described Camp David as "very rustic" and told reporters in 2017 that they would tire of it after 30 minutes.

He spent more time at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, which became known as his "winter White House."

The wicker dining set and plaid couches have been replaced with sleek leather chairs and recessed lighting.