Political insider Patricia Murphy is on the road for her second annual summer road trip. Last week, she was in Dalton. This week, it’s Plains, hometown of President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn.
PLAINS — With July Fourth on the calendar, there’s no place in Georgia that feels more quintessentially American than Plains, with flags waving, corn and peanuts growing in fields on the way and odes on every corner to its most famous citizens, the late President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter.
Sunday marked the six-month anniversary of President Carter’s death at the age of 100. And I’ve wondered many times since, can the Carters’ hometown of Plains survive without its most famous resident?
He and Mrs. Carter had taken steps, large and small, over the years to keep Plains alive and thriving.
Jimmy Carter quit a promising naval career to move home after his father died to take over the family farm and business. And he put his 1976 presidential campaign headquarters in the middle of town at the Plains Train Depot, where visitors flocked from across the country to volunteer or just get a view of the campaign in action.
Over the years, the Carters gave Plains the constant promise of excitement, with Secret Service agents running errands in town or famous dignitaries trekking there for dinner. Before the Carters died, they decided to be buried at home in Plains, too, instead of at the Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta. If a former president’s and first lady’s memorials were in Plains, they reasoned, people would still have a reason to visit.
Credit: Patricia Murphy
Credit: Patricia Murphy
The little post office on Main Street was the center of attention this week, when friends, family and what seemed like every neighbor in Plains came out for a ceremony to rename the two-room facility after President and Mrs. Carter.
Rosalynn Carter’s mother worked there for years and cried when she had to retire, said Chip Carter, one of the Carters’ sons. Along with visiting his grandmother there most days after school, Chip also said his dad once dispatched him to the post office to send the first-ever mailing for the 1976 campaign — 500 postcards.
“They didn’t appreciate me much (at the post office),” he joked, “but I think they were excited over the years that Dad kept running mail through here and kept the post office alive and going when others were closing.”
The future of Plains without the president seemed to be on other people’s minds this week, too. At the dedication ceremony for the post office Wednesday, Tony Lowden, the Carters’ former pastor at Maranatha Baptist Church, prayed for the town and the leaders who will follow in the Carters’ footsteps.
He told me he did that because President Carter used to ask him four questions when they visited together: Where have you been? What have you done? Who have you helped? And how can I help you help them?
“I believe that’s the spirit of the people in Plains, and that’s the spirit our nation needs in a major way,” Lowden said, “We can start here in Plains, where President Carter started. And I think we can carry that along.”
Mayor Joey Recker said Plains wasn’t just the Carters’ hometown, it was the foundation of everything they stood for.
“It tells the world that greatness doesn’t have to start in marble halls or high towers. It begins right here on front porches and red clay dirt roads and small towns just like this one,” he said.
Credit: Patricia Murphy
Credit: Patricia Murphy
Of course, Recker also has to deal with the unglamorous day-to-day worries that keep mayors all over Georgia busy right now.
Plains desperately needs a new public restroom for all of the visitors who still come to town, he said. A new water treatment plant is also in the works, but it’s expensive. “It’s hard to brag about your new water treatment plant, but those are the things you’ve got to do,” Recker said.
The good news for anyone who cares about Plains is that people are still visiting, even without the chance of spotting the Carters around town. They want to know what’s so special about the place that made the first couple special.
While I stood in front of the post office, Randy Rychen was there taking pictures while visiting with his family from Menifee, California, and Phoenix.
Credit: Patricia Murphy
Credit: Patricia Murphy
His sister, Tammy Null, said Plains was “everything I hoped it would be.” She was 18 years old in 1976 when she voted for the first time — and she voted for Jimmy Carter,
“It’s one thing that he was president for four years, but I think it’s so important for people to realize that you can kind of come from more humble beginnings and still become a president of the United States,” she said.
Her husband, Mathew Null, said he was struck by Carter’s decision to leave the Navy to return to Plains.
“He came back here because he said, ‘Who have I influenced?’ And he was talking about his dad, who had influenced so many people in Plains,” he said. “That doesn’t make headlines, but I think Jimmy Carter was wise enough to recognize that influencing people in their day-to-day lives was true influence.”
Going forward, Recker said the biggest challenge for Plains will be keeping the town relevant, but he thinks that’s already happening. “President Carter showed us what right looks like — and we want to keep that legacy alive.”
After a stop for peanut butter ice cream (more on that in another column), I turned on the car radio on my way out of town and heard the news that Congress was in the process of slashing Medicaid and Medicare funding as a part of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” Both programs are crucial to the survival of the dwindling number of rural hospitals that serve Georgia towns like Plains.
One of those hospitals will be the destination for my next Georgia politics road trip. I’ll report back what I find. And I’ll see you on down the road.
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