Grapevine

Longest living former US President Jimmy Carter turns 100

Carter served only one term but built a lasting legacy of promoting human rights, including through criticism of Israel.

Former United States President Jimmy Carter has turned 100, with praise pouring in for the peanut farmer whose post-presidential career resonated far beyond his short time in office.

Carter marked his birthday on Tuesday from his birthplace of Plains, Georgia, where he entered hospice care in his modest home last year.

He is both the oldest living president and the longest living president in US history, with an outsized legacy defined by his human rights and humanitarian work after a presidency during which he was heavily criticised.

“I think he has a complicated legacy but it really boils down, to me and I think, for him, that he lived out his faith and the commandment to love your neighbour as yourself in a way that made him respect people,” Carter’s grandson, Jason Carter, told the local 11Alive news station ahead of the ex-president’s birthday.