All About Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter’s Modest Georgia Home, Where They’ve Lived for 60 Years and Will Be Buried

Former President Jimmy Carter and his late wife Rosalynn Carter never moved from the modest Georgia home they built in 1961 — even after four years in the White House.

The ranch house, located in their hometown of Plains, Sumter County, will serve as a grave for Rosalynn, who died Sunday at the age of 96.

The former president, 99, is currently under medical care at home after stopping medical intervention due to his own health problems earlier this year.

In 2018, The Washington Post reported that the two-bedroom residence, then assessed at $167,000, was “less than the value of the Secret Service armored vehicles parked outside.” Zillow currently estimates the home to be worth around $240,000.

Carters’ Plains, Georgia, home 1976.

Guy DeLort/WWD/Penske Media via Getty

“He doesn’t like big people and he doesn’t think he’s a big face,” said Gerald Rafshoon, who was Jimmy’s White House communications director. Fast.

The property features a pond that Jimmy helped dig and a magnolia tree transplanted from the cuttings of a tree that Andrew Jackson planted on the White House lawn nearly 200 years ago. The tombstones of the married couple will be next to the willow tree at the edge of the pond.

The Carters deeded the property to the National Park Service, which will turn the land into a museum after their deaths.

Rosalynn Carter will be buried at the family’s residence in Georgia after lying in state next week

Jimmy, who was the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981, and Rosalynn, a lifelong advocate for mental health and human rights, led a low-key lifestyle that included flyering and regular walks down Church Street, the city’s main thoroughfare. Jimmy taught Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains for decades.

Carters’ Plains, Georgia, home 1976.

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In 2011, the couple’s grandson Jason Carter said Rolling stone“What I admire most about my grandparents is that they did everything they could to remain normal people.”

“They built their house in the 1960s and hardly changed anything,” Jason added. “They were super excited – legitimately excited! — when a Dollar General store opened in Plains. They buy clothes there.”

“My grandparents, their microwave is from 1985,” added Jason, a former state senator. “It’s going tick tick tick tick! Popcorn takes 12 minutes to pop, because why would you buy a new microwave? The point is that nothing is easy, and why should it be?”

Jimmy Carter is seen at his home after a morning church service at Maranatha Baptist Church in August 2018.

Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty

Jimmy grew up on the family’s peanut farm in the community of Archery, a few miles from Plains. They didn’t have running water until he was 11, and they didn’t get electricity until three years later.

“The greatest day in my life was not the inauguration of the president, [and] it wasn’t even Rosalynn’s wedding — it was when they turned on the power,” Jimmy said, according to The New York Times.

In August, another of the couple’s grandchildren, Josh Carter, told PEOPLE that the Plains home is “quiet and peaceful” these days, adding that since Jimmy started hospice, “there’s always someone in the house” to keep the grandparents company.

The former president and first lady had sons John William “Jack”, James Earl “Chip”, Donnel Jeffrey “Jeff” and a daughter Amy Carter. Of the four grown-up children, there are 22 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Rosalynn Carter, former first lady and mental health advocate, dies at 96

The former first lady will soon be buried at the Plains residence.

Jimmy Carter addresses the media in 1988, along with Democratic presidential candidate Richard Gephardt (C) and Rosalynn Carter.

MIKE SPRAGUE/AFP via Getty

Festivities will begin Monday with a wreath laying at Georgia Southwestern State University’s Rosalynn Carter Health and Humanities Complex. She will then be taken to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, where members of the public are invited to pay their respects as she lies in repose from 6 to 10 p.m.

On Tuesday, November 28, Carter’s motorcade will move to Glenn Memorial Church at Emory University for a private memorial service, and on Wednesday, November 28, a formal funeral service for family and friends will be held at Maranatha Baptist Church.

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In a statement released after her death, the former president said: “Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished. She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew that someone loved and supported me.”

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Source: HIS Education