Three encounters with President Jimmy Carter

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was laid to rest this week on Jan. 9, 2025, after passing away Dec. 29. Since he first began receiving hospice care in February of 2023, tributes, retrospectives, reminiscences, and all manner of eulogies have been posted and published.

As a former journalist and resident of Georgia since 1992, I had three occasions to meet the former president, and those up-close encounters have been in my thoughts the past several weeks.

In April of 1993 as a reporter for The Macon Telegraph, I was dispatched to Americus, Georgia, to cover a Habitat for Humanity blitz build during which its 20,000th house would be completed. President Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, were both there swinging hammers.  After lunch they paused their work to answer questions from members of the media who had gathered for the historic moment.

What struck me about that event was that President Carter did actual work. He wasn’t there to oversee or walk around and shake hands. He was framing houses and hammering nails like other members of the crew. I remember his actions more than anything he said.

However, my memory of that event is tarnished by what befell me as I left. Unfamiliar with the area, I ran a stop sign leaving the construction site and crashed into another car. No one was injured, but my sea green ‘92 Oldsmobile Achieva was rendered undrivable. I had to hop a ride with our photographer, Danny Gilleland, who drove a red convertible Mazda Miata.

So there I was, less than 100 yards from the entrance to the building project, making a spectacle of myself. As the police and first responders took the reports, called a wrecker and cleared the area, I had to extract my golf clubs from the trunk and get into Danny’s red sports car. I’m sure it was a sight. I rode the two hours-plus back to Macon in the tiny car with my golf clubs between my knees. Not only was Danny kind in giving me a ride, my good friend, Jeff Browne, loaned me his Toyota Celica for the two months my car was in the body shop in Americus.

In 2006, Mercer University President Bill Underwood and President Carter convened a group of Baptist denominational leaders at a summit at The Carter Center in Atlanta with the goal of finding a way to bring Baptists together across racial, ethnic and geographic lines. That work produced an organization in 2007 called the New Baptist Covenant which convened a national gathering in Atlanta in 2008.

At the time I was director of communications at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, one of the Baptist groups at the table for those organizational meetings. I had spent 2002-2006 traveling the U.S. meeting with members of the media to introduce them to the work of CBF, and though our partners at Mercer were well versed in media relations themselves, it was decided that one way CBF could contribute to the effort was my involvement as the media contact.

I was at The Carter Center in 2007 when a second summit of Baptist leaders decided to convene the national gathering. When their deliberations ended, Ben McDade, my boss at CBF, and Larry Brumley, Mercer’s senior vice president for marketing communications and chief of staff, emerged from The Carter Center’s Cypress Room and handed me a sheet of paper.

“Here, President Carter wrote a press release,” Ben said, handing me the document. “We need to get this out today.”

In my youthful hubris I glanced at the formatting and wording and stammered, “But, Ben, this isn’t a press release. It’s more like a thesis or an Op/Ed at best. Can I rewrite it?”

“Do you want to go in there and tell the former president of the United States he didn’t write a good press release? Now go send it out.”

And I did. And guess what? The format and style didn’t matter. What got everyone’s attention was President Carter’s name. The “news release” announced the founding of the organization and the convening of the meeting.

From Jan. 29 to Feb. 1, 2008, more than 15,000 people representing over 30 Baptist organizations gathered at the Georgia World Congress Center. I ran the media outreach which included a newsroom accommodating more than 200 credentialed reporters. During the opening press conference, for perhaps the first and only time in his life, President Carter spoke my name out loud.

As he was wrapping up after taking a few questions, he gave instructions to the throng of reporters on how to schedule interviews or submit inquiries.

“Please see…” he paused and looked for a prompt. Larry Brumley spoke up and said, “Lance Wallace.” President Carter then repeated it for the whole room. “Lance Wallace,” he continued as he glanced around looking to see what a “Lance Wallace” looked like. I was off to the side, so I stepped forward and raised my hand.

My good friend Bob Perkins who was there covering the event for CBF giggled and whispered under his breath, “I don’t think he knows who you are.”

In truth, Bob was right. When he said my name it was if he was speaking some foreign tongue. But it happened, and there were witnesses.

My final encounter with President Carter came in 2017 when I worked as director of media relations and issues management at Georgia Tech. The Carters were awarded the Ivan Allen Prize for Social Courage, and they came to the awards luncheon and held a session with students. I was there facilitating media coverage of the event.

He and Rosalynn were generous with their time and gracious enough to speak to any and all students who approached.

The event was held at the historic Biltmore Hotel in Midtown Atlanta, which Georgia Tech had acquired as part of its presence on the east side of I-75/I-85 Connector called “Tech Square.” Georgia Tech frequently used the Biltmore as an event venue, it was a nice setting.

Unbeknownst to us, it also happened to be the hotel where the Carters spent the first night of their honeymoon. President Carter couldn’t help but point this out when he and Rosalynn began their remarks. She gave him some serious side eye, but it got a huge laugh from the audience. Encouraged by the response, he went on.

“But what I remember even more than that night was wrecking my daddy’s car the next day,” he said. “I was from a small town and didn’t have much experience driving in the big city.”

So much has been said this week about one of Georgia’s most influential sons. I won’t attempt to eulogize him here. I think you can glean for yourself from these three moments who Jimmy Carter was as a person. I found it significant that I encountered him building houses, convening Baptists and engaging with college students.

Whatever your own experience of President Carter was, I hope this week has given you a few moments to reflect on his legacy and regardless of politics you can acknowledge his impact.