Jimmy Carter, oldest of all US presidents, dies aged 100

Former US President Jimmy Carter has died at the age of 100, the foundation he founded has confirmed.

The former peanut farmer served longer than any president in history and celebrated his 100th birthday in October.

The Carter Center, which promotes democracy and human rights around the world, said he died Sunday afternoon at his home in Plains, Georgia.

The Democrat served as president from 1977 to 1981, a period marked by economic and diplomatic crises.

After leaving the White House with little recognition, his reputation was restored through humanitarian work that earned him the Nobel Peace Prize.

“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believed in peace, human rights, and selfless love,” his son, Chip Carter, said in a statement.

“The country is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to share these same beliefs.”

Carter is survived by four children, 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

His wife, Rosalynn, of 77 years, died in November 2023.

As of 2018 with the death of George HW Bush, he was the oldest surviving US president.

Carter stopped receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness last year and instead began receiving treatment at home.

His administration will be remembered for his difficult handling of the economic crisis and several foreign policy issues, including the Iran hostage crisis, which ended with the deaths of eight Americans.

However, there was a great success in foreign policy in the Middle East when he helped restore the agreement between Egypt and Israel, signed at Camp David in the US in 1978.

But that seemed unremarkable two years later, when voters elected Republican Ronald Reagan, who portrayed the president as a weak leader unable to deal with inflation and high interest rates.

Carter lost the 1980 election, winning only six US states including Washington DC.

After such a crushing defeat, Carter was often held up by Republicans as an example of liberal incompetence.

Meanwhile, many in his own party either ignored him or saw his presidential failures as evidence that democratic politics or policies were a better way forward.

Today many on the right sneer at Carter’s age but as the years passed, his humanitarian work and simple lifestyle began to create a new legacy for many Americans.

After leaving the White House, he became the first and only president to return full-time to his pre-political home – a modest, two-bedroom ranch house.

He chose not to follow up on the lucrative after-dinner speeches and press releases that await many former presidents, I told the Washington Post in 2018 that he didn’t really want to be rich.

Instead he spent his remaining years trying to solve the global problems of inequality and disease.