Locals, those close to him reflect on Jimmy Carter's life, presidency

Feb. 24—Frank Moore walked with Jimmy Carter in the White House's Rose Garden and behind him in his inauguration parade.

And he's now with the former president, at least in spirit, as Carter, 98, lives out his remaining days in hospice care at his home in Plains.

Moore, a Dahlonega native who served as Carter's assistant for congressional relations during his presidency, said he calls Carter about once a week.

"Sometimes we speak for 10 minutes, sometimes for two minutes," said Moore, whose wife is the former Nancy Wofford of Gainesville. "We laugh and talk about things, hardly ever about the White House. We talk about the governor's office and characters in the state legislature, or hunting ... and children and grandchildren, stuff about family."

Speaking this week by phone to The Times from his St. Simons Island home, Moore described Carter as being in "a period of joy."

"He's as prepared to go as anybody ever was," said Moore, the last living Carter associate who followed Carter from when he was a state senator through the presidency. "He's accomplished everything he ever wanted in his life. ... He's home and happy, surrounded by family and friends. It's a time of joy."

"He's in a great mood and (has) a great sense of humor," added Moore.

Others with local ties, like Moore, are recalling and lauding the 39th president in the wake of The Carter Center's Feb. 18 announcement Carter had "decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention."

"Like everyone who loves and admires President Carter, I'm heartbroken to hear the news that he's been placed on hospice care," said the Rev. Jeremy Shoulta, who served as Carter's pastor at his church in Plains, Maranatha Baptist Church, and now serves as senior pastor of Gainesville's First Baptist Church.

"But I'm grateful and blessed by his long and fruitful life, which has affected me and people all over the world. I celebrate and give thanks for all he's meant to me, my family and so many others."

He said he "will always remember his kindness and warmth, which he conveyed in private but also on a global stage."

In a 2020 interview, Shoulta talked about how he watched from 2014 to 2016 how the couple cared for the small west-central Georgia town of Plains and the church community.

"It was a joy to walk with him on this Christian journey and to experience his teachings up close," Shoulta said. "Also, to see him live out his faith locally and with his neighbors in Plains was inspiring as well. That's something I'll never forget."

While other churches may struggle to attract visitors, Carter's church never had that problem, especially as he taught Sunday school for years, including during Shoulta's tenure.

"He would teach on average two or three times a month," Shoulta recalled. "When those dates were put on the calendar, people would plan vacations and trips to ... be there when he would teach.

"I would do my part to help welcome people into our space and to share our faith with not just Christians but ... those who were just curious about a former president teaching a Bible study class."

Joe Amerling and Jane White of Gainesville were among those who flocked over the years to Plains to see the president. The couple went about eight or 10 times, Amerling said.

"Last time we went, Joe said, 'Do you think we do this too much?'" White said. "And I said, 'You know, one day we're not going to be able to go. He's not going to be able to teach anymore.'"

Both of them recalled a story about bringing their nephew to Carter's church. Before his appearance in the sanctuary, a presenter gave some rules to the audience, including when to take pictures but especially "don't touch the president."

"He had just finished chemotherapy and was more fragile," White said. "He came up to us and saw (the nephew) in his little bow tie and said, 'Shake my hand, young man.'"

Frozen, the boy didn't extend his hand.

"Miss Jan said not to," he said. Carter laughed, then said, "Really, shake my hand."

"It was cool," White said of the experience.

One of those who served under Carter in his post-presidency was Camille Massey, who grew up in Gainesville and now is a human rights lawyer in New York.

While in law school, Massey, 57, spent a summer as the first graduate fellow at The Carter Center in Atlanta.

"It was just an incredible experience, just to see how down to earth the president and First Lady (Rosalynn Carter) are," she said.

Massey's work included research for the center's international human rights council.

"I really got the sense that it was a priority for (Carter) to hear voices from around the world," she said. "That really stayed with me."

She became familiar with Carter through her father, Abit Massey, president emeritus of the Gainesville-based Georgia Poultry Federation.

As longtime head of the poultry group, he knew Carter in his pre-presidency days, including when he was a state senator and governor. He also attended Carter's inauguration ceremony as president and visited him at the White House.

He remains a great admirer.

"He and Rosalynn are amazing people," Abit Massey said. "I don't think any former president and first lady has done more to keep their service going."

Another Gainesville friend of Carter's was the late Don Carter of Don Carter Realty.

Both outdoorsmen, Jimmy Carter asked Don Carter — no relation — in the early 1970s, while the pair was walking along a beach on the Georgia coast, if he would like to serve on the Game and Fish Commission, the forerunner to the Department of Natural Resources.

The conversation took place as Jimmy Carter was running for governor, Don Carter said in a 2013 interview with The Times.

Don Carter agreed to serve, and would end up spending 29 years on the Georgia Department of Natural Resources board and becoming the namesake for Don Carter State Park in North Hall.

When Jimmy Carter was elected president, "our entire family, like many people from this area, went up to the inauguration, and that was quite memorable," said Doug Carter, Don Carter's son, in an interview this week.

He recalled the famous walk by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter down Pennsylvania Avenue after he was sworn in as president in Washington.

"It was very memorable," Doug Carter said. "I was supposed to be in the parade ... but when we got to D.C., I was sick. I was well enough to at least go to the parade."

He also recalled a trip Jimmy Carter took during his presidency to his dad's 400-acre farm near Hiawassee in the North Georgia mountains, arriving by helicopter and heavily protected.

"When he was no longer president, he came back with a much smaller entourage," Doug Carter said. "I was able to go up, and (Jimmy Carter) gave me some fly-fishing lessons."

He also remembered from the post-presidency trip sleeping upstairs in a no-electricity log cabin — in a loft above where Carter was sleeping.

"Each night, I would see him through the cracks in the floor with candlelight and reading," Doug Carter said. "Naturally, being curious, when he was out fishing the next day, I looked on his bed stand and there was a Bible there. The Bible was in Spanish. He had been reading it to work on his Spanish."

Carter's move into hospice has people far and wide considering the former president's legacy, with the presidency being just one aspect of his life.

Former Gov. Nathan Deal's political career came after Carter's in Georgia, but the longtime Gainesvillian said he "always admired" what Carter accomplished.

"He was always interested in helping people" throughout the world, he said. "His work, including with Habitat for Humanity, were good examples he set for public service. He and Rosalynn set very good examples for what public officials should or shouldn't do, and I think we should all be proud of that fact."

"I loved him as a president," White said. "His willingness to make human parts as part of foreign policy had never been done before. His interest in climate change and what we needed to do for the environment — I think he was a much better president than what he's given credit for.

"But what he did afterward was just unmatched by anybody."

Carter had a very active presidency, molded in large part by world events, such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan but particularly the Iranian hostage crisis, which experts have said sealed Carter's fate as a one-term president.

And then there were domestic issues, including the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, gas lines and ongoing inflation.

"He gets a bad rap," Moore said. "They say he was a bad president but a good post-president," he said. "His post-presidency was just a (continuation) of what he did in the White House: conflict resolution, fighting disease."

He described his former boss as "a consequential president" whose priorities in office included business deregulation, energy policies, human rights and rebuilding a military that lapsed since the Vietnam War, Moore said.

"I'm proud of what we did legislatively," he said.

But as he reflects on Carter's life, Moore's immediate thought has nothing to do with politics.

"People have asked me, 'What's one word you would use to describe him?' I'd say it is faith, abiding faith, which has driven his whole life and everything he has done," Moore said.