Jimmy Carter: Carter Center announces plan to celebrate his 100th birthday

ATLANTA — The Carter Center has announced plans to celebrate the 100th birthday of former President Jimmy Carter.

Carter will turn 100 on Oct. 1.

The Washington Post noted that his life spanned 17 other presidents, starting with William Howard Taft all the way to Joe Biden, so far.

But the center will hold the “Jimmy Carter 100: A Celebration in Song next month.

The event will be held on Sept. 17 at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. It “will feature world-renowned artists performing live tributes and special guests celebrating President Carter’s legacy of service to humanity,” the Carter Center said in a news release.

Tickets, which cost $100 each, will go on sale online at 10 a.m. ET Aug. 5.

The following artists are scheduled to perform with more being announced later:

• Chuck Leavell
• D-Nice
• Drive-By Truckers
• Eric Church
• GROUPLOVE
• Maren Morris
• The War And Treaty
• The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chamber Chorus

Rickey Minor will be the musical director and there will be appearances by Dale Murphy and Killer Mike among others.

Jason Carter, the president’s grandson and Carter Center chair, said that music played a big part in his grandfather’s life.

“Whether it was on his record player, on the campaign trail, or on the White House lawn, music has been – and continues to be – a source of joy, comfort, and inspiration for my grandfather,” he said. “I can think of no better way to celebrate him and his 100th birthday than a night of music.”

Chuck Leavell, former keyboardist for the Allman Brothers and Rolling Stones said, “Back when Jimmy Carter was running for president, the Allman Brothers played concerts for his campaign because we believed in his vision for hope and change for America. We could never have imagined what a positive impact he would have on the entire world. It’s an honor to play at his 100th birthday and celebrate a man whose legacy will surely continue to inspire future generations.”

In addition to the musical celebration, there will be a film festival put on by the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, The Washington Post reported. Like music, movies played a big part in his life.

“The movies have touched all our lives — mine as a farm boy. It gave me a vision of the outside world,” he said in 1977. “I’m sure the first time I saw the White House was in the back seat of a movie theater.”

He also helped bring movie production to Georgia by creating the Georgia Film Commission when he was governor.

There will also be a 100-mile bike ride in his honor, the Post reported.

The former president’s health has been failing over the past few years.

He had metastatic melanoma, a skin cancer, that had spread to his liver and brain in 2015, the Post reported.

In February 2023 he entered hospice care. The last time he was seen was at the funeral for his wife former first lady Rosalynn Carter who died in November 2023 after a battle with dementia, six months after the family said she had been diagnosed.

The couple had been married for 77 years.

His grandson said in May that his grandfather was “still in the same situation he’s been in the last year.”

“He has been in hospice, as you know, for almost a year and a half now, and he really is, I think, at the end that, as I’ve said before, there’s a part of this faith journey that is so important to him, and there’s a part of that faith journey that you only can live at the very end and I think he has been there in that space,” Jason Carter said at the time, according to USA Today and CNN.

Friends and family told The Washington Post in June that he still has a good appetite and has meals made from vegetables from his boyhood farm. The farm is now a National Park Service museum. He also recognizes people and smiles.

He also was taken from his home in Plains, Georgia, into his backyard for Easter Sunday.

Jimmy Carter remains the oldest living former president, serving one term from 1977 to 1981.

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