Mourners Place Peanuts, Peaches and Even Peanut Butter Outside of Carter Center Following Jimmy Carter's Death

Mar. 15, 2025

The Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, on Dec. 29.Photo:Megan Varner/Getty

Megan Varner/Getty

Mourners honored formerPresident Jimmy Carter’s humble roots while paying their respects afterhis death at age 100on Sunday, Dec. 29.

Photographers captured a makeshift tribute to the 39th president of the United States outside of the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, Georgia, in the hours after Carter’s death was announced.

Among the traditional flower bouquets, well wishers also placed peanut containers, peanut butter and peaches around the Carter Center sign,NPR’s Stephen Fowler reported.

By the evening, a chalkboard sign reading “We love you President Carter” was also added, as seen in a Getty image.

The peaches, are, of course, a nod to Georgia’s most iconic export. The peanuts and peanut butter honor Carter’s personal and family history.

Jimmy Carter in 1980.Diana Walker/Getty

Diana Walker/Getty

Carter was born into a family of primarily peanut farmers. Much of his youth was spentworking on the Plains peanut farmthat his family had cultivated, and Carter used the money he earned to jumpstart his career.

Later, he oversaw the farm, himself, after it hadfallen on hard timesbefore Carter’s father’s death, according to the Miller Center of Public Affairs. It was not smooth sailing — in fact, it took him many years to turn a decent net profit.

Carter, of course, attended the Naval Academy and worked as an engineer before moving into politics, eventually becoming Georgia’s governor before his one term as commander in chief.

He was the longest-lived president in United States history — a title he heldsince March of 2019, and a record he broke with each birthday thereafter.

source: people.com