By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
December 30, 2024
Flowers are being laid at President Jimmy Carter’s plaque on the grounds of the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site in Indianapolis, not only honoring the 39th president, who passed away Sunday at age 100 but also underscoring the Georgian’s ties to the Hoosier state.
Carter, a Democrat, never won Indiana in either of his races for the White House. He fell short in 1976, gathering 45.7% of the Hoosier vote to Republican incumbent Gerald Ford’s 53%. He then suffered a greater fall in 1980, receiving just 37.7% of the Indiana vote in his crushing loss to Republican Ronald Reagan, who captured 56%.
Yet, Carter cultivated friendships and a deep respect with some Indiana leaders during his presidency and after.
Even though the administrations of Carter and Benjamin Harrison, the Hoosier who served as the 23rd president, were separated by nearly a century, both men were humble, championed the rights of the downtrodden, and loved their country.
“Between President Harrison and President Carter, I think that, as with a number of other presidents, they just had great reputations as statesmen,” Charles Hyde, president and CEO of the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site, said. “Whatever disagreement people may have had with their policies or priorities within their administrations, they’re always admired for having the best interests of the country at heart and being people of principle.”
Single roses were being placed on top of Carter’s plaque on the historic site’s Stan and Sandy Presidential Promenade which connects the Harrison home to the Sarah Evans Barker Citizenship Plaza. The granite plaque features a medallion with the number 39 and Carter’s signature. Anyone wanting to pay respects to Carter is welcome to place a flower at the plaque.
Also, the presidential site has placed black mourning bunting around the front porch of the Harrison home.
“It’s something that traditionally has been done and it’s something that we just feel is important as a sign of respect,” Hyde said of the bunting that will remain on the Harrison home for 30 days. “Anytime you lose an American president, it’s something you want to acknowledge and honor.”
Gov. Eric Holcomb has directed flags across the state be flown at half-staff through Jan. 28, 2025, in honor of the 39th president.
President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has ordered that flags be flown at half-staff across the nation for 30 days in another sign of respect for Carter. Also, Biden has established Jan. 9 as a National Day of Mourning for the former president.
James Earl Carter Jr. walked into the Oval Office when the United States was still reeling from the Watergate scandal, the resignation of President Richard Nixon and the nation’s painful exit from the long war in Vietnam, Robert Schmuhl, professor emeritus of American studies and journalism at the University of Notre Dame, wrote in his tribute to the late president. The country, wanting to turn a page, Schmuhl wrote, picked a leader who was “completely different” from the politicians who had occupied the White House in the 1960s and early 1970s.
“After the Vietnam War and Watergate, with whopper after whopper of truth-stretching, to hear a presidential candidate promise, ‘I’ll never lie to you,’ struck many potential voters as audaciously appealing,” Schmuhl wrote.
However, Carter’s single term in office did not meet the hope and the expectations that voters had placed in him. Schmuhl noted historians in 2021 ranked the Carter presidency 26th out of 44 for leadership and performance.
While president, Carter’s accomplishments included negotiating the Camp David Accords peace agreement between Israel and Egypt and passing legislation addressing a broad range of issues from energy security to health care, according to a remembrance written by Bill Antholis, director of the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, which specializes in presidential scholarship, public policy and political history. At the same time, Carter struggled with the economy and inflation, faced a 444-day hostage crisis for 52 Americans held captive in Iran and lost the confidence of the liberals in his own party.
Former Indiana Congressman Lee Hamilton, a Democrat, told WISH-TV that as chair of the House Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East, he worked mostly on foreign policy issues with Carter. He described the late president as being very intellectual and good at keeping members of Congress apprised of the issues, but Carter did not always listen to the lawmakers on Capitol Hill and chaffed at people who did not agree with him.
“I enjoyed working with him because I like to see a well-prepared president, and he certainly was that,” Hamilton said in his interview with WISH-TV. “Carter was always well-prepared. I don’t think I ever saw him go into a meeting when he had not mastered the brief and I think he had, because of his own skills, I guess, a lack of patience, if you would, with other people.”
When he was campaigning for the presidency in 1976, Carter reached out to the University of Notre Dame president, the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh. The Baptist from Georgia and the Catholic priest from South Bend developed a friendship that often included the president seeking advice from Hesburgh on presidential appointments and recommendations from the Presidential Clemency Board.
Months after being inaugurated, Carter visited Notre Dame at Hesburgh’s invitation to give the principal address and receive an honorary degree at the commencement ceremony in May 1977. The speech Carter made has been regarded as “the most important foreign policy address of his presidency, advocating for the creation of new global alliances and championing human rights, policies built upon the ‘new reality of a politically awakening world,’” according to a statement from Notre Dame on Carter’s passing.
Carter returned to Notre Dame in 2015 for a memorial service for Hesburgh, who had died in February of that year. The former president recounted making a “mistake” in 1979 by asking Hesburgh if he wanted anything. Hesburgh replied he would like to ride in an SR-71, a supersonic reconnaissance jet that was the fastest aircraft in the world. Although Carter told Hesburgh that civilians do not ride in top-secret jets, he nonetheless acquiesced and Hesburgh took a trip on the SR-71 Blackbird with the pilot setting a new world record of 2,200 mph.
“The Notre Dame community joins in mourning the passing of our 39th president while also celebrating his remarkable service to our nation and the world, both in and out of the Oval Office,” University of Notre Dame president the Rev. Robert Dowd, said in a statement.
Following his defeat in 1980, Carter, along with his wife Rosalynn, continued to work for human rights and built what Antholis called an “extraordinary post-presidency.” Carter’s nearly 44 years as a former president was the longest in American history and was marked by “generosity and personal commitment,” Antholis wrote, which encompassed building homes for Habitat for Humanity, peacekeeping efforts around world and providing leadership in ending global diseases such as the Guinea worm.
In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Mike Schmuhl, chair of the Indiana Democratic Party, called Carter’s post-presidential life “a remarkable gift to the United States and the world.” He noted that the former president and first lady worked to bring peace, democracy, housing, and health care to places around the globe.
“Lastly, everyone can take some lessons from the man who taught Sunday school for 40 years in his hometown of Plains, Georgia,” Schmuhl said in a statement. “Any person can make a positive impact in their community, they can be humble and preach kindness, and they can leave the world in a better place. We could all use these lessons today as we reflect on the incredible life of President Jimmy Carter.”
In the summer of 2018, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter traveled back to Indiana to help Habitat for Humanity of St. Joseph County build a 76-home subdivision in Mishawaka. The Carters were there for a week, measuring and cutting wood, and hammering nails with the other volunteers.
“It was inspirational,” Jim Williams CEO of Habitat for Humanity of St. Joseph County, recalled in an interview with WNDU. “When you first meet them, you’re in awe, a former president of the United States, but then once you get focused on the task at hand and that’s to build a house, you just get to it and you start building and then you catch glimpses though of President and Mrs. Carter and you see just how humble … sincere and genuine they were.”
Rosalynn Carter died in November 2023, at the age of 96, after 77 years of marriage to the former president.
Carter will lie in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., and then he will be buried alongside his wife in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.
At the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site, Hyde noted Harrison and Carter were among a very select group. Over the country’s nearly 250-year history, just 12,000 individuals have served in Congress and 116 have sat on the U.S. Supreme Court but only 45 have been president of the United States.
“So 45 out of a half billion people” who have called this country home, Hyde said. “There’s some reason why they were elected to the highest office in the land and whatever those legacies may be, they’re worth knowing and understanding.”
Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
