Jimmy Carter and his hometown of Plains celebrate the 39th president's 100th birthday

ATLANTA — Jimmy Carter prepares to celebrate his 100th birthday on Tuesday, the first time an American president has lived a full century and the latest milestone in a life that has taken the son of a Depression-era farmer to whiteness Home and around the world was a Nobel Peace Prize-winning humanitarian worker and democracy advocate.

The Georgia Democrat and 39th president, who has spent the past 19 months in home hospice care in Plains, has continued to exceed expectations, just as he has risen to the world stage through a remarkable rise from his family peanut growing and storage business. He served one term as president from 1977 to 1981 and then spent more than four decades leading the Carter Center, which he and his wife Rosalynn co-founded in 1982 to “build peace, fight disease and inspire hope.”

“Not everyone lives to 100 years on this earth, and when someone does, and when they use that time to do so much good for so many people, it's worth celebrating,” said Jason Carter, the former president's grandson and chairman of the Carter Center board, said in an interview.

“The last few months, 19 months, now that he's in hospice, have been an opportunity for our family to reflect,” he continued, “and then for the rest of the country and the world to really reflect on him.” That was a really enjoyable time.”

The former president was born Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains, where he spent more than 80 of his 100 years. He is expected to celebrate his birthday in the same one-story home he and Rosalynn built in the early 1960s – before his first election to the Georgia state Senate. The former first lady, who was also born in Plains, died last November at age 96.

The Carter Center hosted a music gala in Atlanta on Sept. 17 to celebrate the former president with a range of genres and artists, including some who campaigned with him in 1976. The event raised more than $1.2 million for the center's programs and will air Tuesday nights on Georgia Public Broadcasting.

In St. Paul, Minnesota, Habitat for Humanity volunteers honored Carter with a five-day effort to build 30 homes. The Carters became top ambassadors for the international organization after leaving the White House, hosting annual construction projects into their 90s. Carter survived a cancer diagnosis at age 90, then multiple falls and a hip replacement in his mid-90s before announcing at age 98 that he would enter hospice care.

Plains townspeople planned another concert Tuesday night.

The last time Jimmy Carter was seen in public was nearly a year ago, when he attended his wife's two funeral services in a reclining wheelchair. Visibly diminished and silent, he was joined in the front row at Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church in Atlanta by the couple's four children, all living former first lady, President Joe Biden and his wife Jill, and former President Bill Clinton. A day later, Carter joined his extended family and parishioners at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, where the former president taught Sunday school for decades.

Jason Carter said the 100th birthday celebration was not something the family expected after his grandmother's death. The former president's hospital bed had been placed in the same room so that he could see and speak to his wife of 77 years in her final days and hours.

“We honestly didn’t think he was going to last much longer,” Jason Cater said. “But for him it’s a journey of faith and he’s really committed to what he believes is God’s plan. He knows he's not in charge. But especially in the last few months he has been much more concerned with world events, much more with politics, much more, just emotionally, with all of us.

Jason Carter said the centenarian president, born just four years after granting women the constitutional right to vote and four decades before black women had access to the ballot, is eager to cast his presidential vote in 2024 — for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat , who wants to become the first woman, the second black person and the first person of South Asian descent to reach the Oval Office.

“He, like many of us, was incredibly pleased by his friend Joe Biden’s courageous decision to pass the torch,” the younger Carter said. “You know, my grandfather and the Carter Center have watched more than 100 elections in 40 other countries, right? So he knows how rare it is for someone who is the sitting president to relinquish power in any context.”

Jason Carter continued, “When we started asking him about his 100th birthday, he said he was excited to vote for Kamala Harris.”

Early voting in Georgia begins Oct. 15, two weeks after James Earl Carter Jr. turns 101.