When it is his week to watch over his father, Chip Carter usually arrives at the house around 5:30 a.m. At 99 years old, former President Jimmy Carter is an early riser and likes to talk politics, the presidential race and the Atlanta Braves in the morning.
His extraordinary life has largely settled into a quiet regimen. One of six full-time caregivers will make breakfast for the one-time leader of the free world. Chip will turn on the television and sit next to him as he eats.
“I have been doing this for years now,” said James Earl “Chip” Carter III, a 74-year-old grandfather. “I am pretty used to the routine of it. He’s my dad.
” On his actual birthday, Plains will dedicate a monument called the Charters of Freedom — a permanent display of replicas of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence — at the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park.
Naturalization ceremonies, each welcoming 100 new Americans, will be held in the small Sumter County town and at the Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta. And, depending on the weather, a United States Navy jet flyover is scheduled to be held in Plains to honor the 1946 graduate of the U.S.
Naval Academy. The day will round out with an evening concert, appropriately called “Happy Birthday, Mr. President! .
.. Celebrating 100 years of Jimmy Carter in Plains,” featuring pianist David Osborne and singer-songwriters Cindy Morgan and Andrew Greer.
“We are thrilled,” said Jill Stucke.