Jimmy Carter, nation's longest-living former president, dies at 100

• Biden said in a statement earlier Sunday that he will order a full state funeral for Carter, though no additional information was immediately announced.

Zoom in: As the nation's 39th president, Carter said he tried to forge a "competent and compassionate" U.S. government.

• A former peanut farmer and U.S. Navy nuclear physicist, Carter led a life of service that started well before his first elected office on the Sumter County, Georgia, Board of Education — and endured long after his presidency.
• He has often been called the "nation's greatest former president" for the humanitarian work he conducted in his more than four decades after Washington.
• Carter, the nation's longest-living former president and first to reach triple digits, began receiving hospice care at home in February 2023 after a series of short hospital stays, the Carter Center announced at the time.

Driving the news: "Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States and winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, died peacefully Sunday, Dec. 29, at his home in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family," per a statement.

• Carter's son, Chip Carter, said in the statement that his father "was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love."
• "The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs," Chip Carter said.

• The Carter Center said that there will be observances held in both Atlanta and Washington, D.C.

Flashback: Carter's wife of 77 years, Rosalynn, died in November 2023 at the age of 96. The former first lady, a lifelong mental health advocate, had been diagnosed with dementia earlier in the year and entered hospice days before her death.

• A 99-year-old Jimmy Carter traveled to Atlanta for her memorial service and attended her funeral in their hometown of Plains.
• Biden and first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, first gentleman Doug Emhoff, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attended the Atlanta service.
• All living former first ladies — Melania Trump, Michelle Obama and Laura Bush — were also there.
• Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter had the longest presidential marriage.

Looking back on Carter’s life

Carter was born on Oct. 1, 1924, in the small farming town of Plains at a hospital where his mother worked as a nurse. He was the first future president born in a hospital.

• Carter, the oldest of four, grew up picking peanuts on his family's farm. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946, becoming the first future president to graduate from the academy.
• That same year he married Rosalynn, a fellow Plains native who had known Carter her entire life.
• Carter served in Norfolk, Virginia, and Hawai’i before joining the Navy's nuclear submarine program in Schenectady, New York, as a nuclear physicist. When his father died in 1953, Carter resigned to run the family's farms and seed and supply company with Rosalynn — against her wishes.
• Following a stint on his local Sumter County Board of Education, Carter ran for the Georgia State Senate in 1962. While he initially lost in the Democratic primary, he successfully proved his opponent had won based on voter fraud. A judge threw out the results, and Carter held the office for two terms.
• After a failed gubernatorial campaign in 1966, Carter was elected governor of Georgia in 1970. While his campaign sought the support of segregationists, his inaugural address shocked many when he declared "the time for discrimination is over." His administration emphasized ecology, efficiency in government and the removal of racial barriers.

Carter's presidential term

Though largely unknown in national politics, Carter announced his candidacy for president in December 1974 and accepted the Democratic nomination in July 1976. (An Atlanta Constitution editorial declared: "Jimmy Carter is running for what!?")

• On Nov. 2, 1976 — during the country's bicentennial year — Carter and his running mate, Walter Mondale defeated incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford.
• Carter's presidential victories included arranging the Camp David Accords that established a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, the ratification of the Panama Canal treaties, and the normalization of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China.
• Under his administration, 8 million jobs were created and the budget deficit decreased. He championed environmental and renewable energy policies, had solar panels installed on the White House, protected more than 100 million acres of land in Alaska, and signed the Environmental Protection Agency's "Superfund" hazardous waste cleanup program into law.
• Carter championed industry deregulation including aviation, transportation and telecommunications, established the Education Department and appointed record numbers of women and people of color to government positions.

• His term was marred by rising energy costs, climbing inflation and interest rates, and a struggle to negotiate the release of 52 Americans held hostage in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
• In 2023, the New York Times confirmed that in 1980, allies of Carter's political opponent, former California Gov. Ronald Reagan, secretly urged Iran not to release the hostages until after the election — something Carter allies had long suspected. (The hostages were released minutes after Reagan's inauguration in 1981.)

What he said: Carter often recalled how proud he was to have kept the U.S. out of war for his four years in office.

• "We kept our country at peace. We never went to war. We never dropped a bomb. We never fired a bullet. But still we achieved our international goals," he told The Guardian in 2011.

Post-presidency

After his defeat to Reagan in 1980, the Carters returned to Plains and the family peanut business, which had been run into debt while in a blind trust during his presidency.

• In 1982, the Carters founded the Atlanta-based Carter Center — which today houses his presidential library and an active, influential nongovernmental organization focused on "waging peace, fighting disease and building hope."
• The center has undertaken a broad range of global programs, including conflict negotiation, election monitoring, and funding treatments to eradicate diseases such as river blindness and Guinea worm.

Carter was awarded the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to bring peace to international conflicts and advance democracy and human rights.

• From the end of his presidency until 2020, Carter regularly taught Sunday school at his home Baptist church, often with hundreds of people lining up overnight to attend.
• Since 1984, he and Rosalynn remained devoted to one of their favorite causes: volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, which builds and restores homes for individuals and families in need.
• In 2015, doctors discovered a form of melanoma that spread to Carter's brain. Remarkably, four months later he announced that he was cancer-free.
• In March 2019, at 94 years and 172 days, he became the longest-living former president in U.S. history. He and Rosalynn attended every presidential inauguration since his own in 1977 until 2021.
• The Bidens visited the Carters in April 2021. Biden and Carter built a long-standing friendship over decades. (In 1976, the first presidential endorsement that then-Gov. Carter got from an elected official outside of Georgia came from a young Sen. Biden.)
• Weeks after his 100th birthday, Carter cast a mail ballot for Harris in the 2024 election.

Carter leaves behind four children — John William (Jack), James Earl III (Chip), Donnel Jeffery (Jeff), and Amy — and more than two dozen grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

More from Axios:

• Jimmy Carter's life in photos
• 10 memorable Jimmy Carter quotes
• "A man of great character": All 5 living presidents pay tribute to Jimmy Carter

Editor's note: This article has been updated to include details of President Biden's Sunday night statement.