As the nation's 39th president, Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, tried in his single term to forge a "competent and compassionate" U.S. government.

• A former peanut farmer and U.S. Navy nuclear physicist, Carter led a life of public service that carried him to the Georgia state Senate, the governor's mansion, the White House and beyond.
• He has often been called the "nation's greatest former president" for the remarkable humanitarian work he conducted in his four decades after Washington.
• Carter in February 2023 decided to receive hospice care at home instead of additional medical intervention.

He went on to live for nearly two years after that, outliving his wife, Rosalynn, who died in November 2023.

• In October 2024 he became the first president to live to 100 years old.

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

• The oldest of four, Carter grew up picking peanuts on his family's farm. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946, becoming the first future president to graduate from the Academy.
• That same year he married Rosalynn Smith — a fellow Plains native he'd known since she childhood.
• Carter became a submariner and nuclear physicist and his service included stints in Connecticut, New York and Hawai'i.
• When his father died in 1953, Carter resigned his naval commission to run the family farm — against Rosalynn's wishes to stay away from their small hometown.
• After representing the 14th District in the Georgia state Senate for two terms, and a failed gubernatorial campaign in 1966, Carter was elected governor of Georgia in 1971, and during his time in that office emphasized ecology, efficiency in government and the removal of racial barriers.

Presidency: Though largely unknown in national politics, then-Gov. Carter announced his candidacy for president in December 1974 and accepted the Democratic nomination on July 15, 1976.

• In 1974, an Atlanta Constitution editorial headline proclaimed: "Jimmy Carter is running for what!?" Carter's presidential campaign produced an entire campaign video called: "Jimmy Who?"
• On Nov. 2, 1976, Carter defeated incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford.

What happened: His single term was marred by rises in energy costs, inflation and interest rates, and his struggles to negotiate the release of 52 Americans held hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

• Carter would ultimately see the hostages released — but not until after he lost the 1980 election and moments after his successor, Ronald Reagan, was inaugurated in January 1981.
• Carter's presidential triumphs include negotiating the Camp David peace accords between Egypt and Israel. He also oversaw the normalization of diplomatic relations with China.
• The Carter administration established the Department of Education, expanded the national park system to include 103 million acres of Alaskan land and appointed record numbers of women, Black and Hispanic Americans.

What he said: Carter often recalled how proud he was to have kept the U.S. out of war during 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," Carter told The Guardian in 2011.

After being defeated by Ronald Reagan in 1980, Carter moved back to his family's home in Plains. He and Rosalynn returned to a peanut business that had been run into debt while in a blind trust.

• But from there, Carter went on to have what's considered among the most successful of American post-presidencies.

Zoom in: In 1982 he and Rosalynn 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."

• It has undertaken a broad range of global programs, including: conflict negotiation, election monitoring and funding effective treatments to eradicate diseases such as river blindness and Guinea worm.
• From the 1980s to 2020, Carter taught Sunday school regularly at his Baptist church in Plains.
• He also remained devoted to one of his favorite causes, Habitat for Humanity, which builds or restores homes for low-income people. He and Rosalynn have helped fix or build thousands of homes across the world.

Of note: Carter received the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end international conflicts and advance democracy and human rights.

• He also wrote 32 books, fiction and nonfiction.

Flashback: In 2015, Carter announced that doctors had discovered a form of melanoma that spread to his 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.

Carter's wife of 77 years, Rosalynn, died last year 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.

• Jimmy Carter traveled to Atlanta for her memorial service and attended her funeral in their hometown of Plains.
• Jimmy called marrying Rosalynn the "the best thing I ever did."

Catch up quick: They grew up "three years and three miles apart," as Rosalynn wrote in her memoir. She was close friends with Carter's younger sister Ruth in their native Plains.

• Rosalynn recalled falling "in love with Jimmy's picture" while he was at the Naval Academy and his portrait hung in Ruth's room.
• After their first date, Jimmy said he told his mother that he'd found his wife.

Zoom in: Rosalynn was a business partner to Carter in his family's peanut farm, where she kept the books. She was a full-fledged campaigner throughout his political life, often traveling solo as they crisscrossed the state and later the country.

• She was a policy adviser who sat in on cabinet meetings in the White House.
• And she was also the first "modern" first lady to have her own policy staff and offices in the East Wing, with which she advocated for causes close to her heart, including mental health policy reform.

The couple leaves behind four children: Jack, Chip, Jeff and Amy — and more than 20 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

❤️ Go deeper: The Carters spoke to PBS NewsHour in 2021 about their secrets to a happy marriage.