President Jimmy Carter shakes hands with Emmett Beliveau while visiting with his grandparents Robert and Laura Murray at their Maple Street home in Bangor in February 1978. Carter stayed with the Murrays overnight while in Bangor for a town hall meeting and to campaign for U.S.
Sen. Bill Hathaway. Photo courtesy of Buddy Murray Cynthia Murray-Beliveau remembers making small talk with a guest at her parents’ house in February 1978.
They talked about ordinary things like a cross-stitch sampler that hung on the wall and the latest Sears catalogue sitting out on a coffee table. This wasn’t an ordinary visit though – the guest was President Jimmy Carter, who was in Bangor at the time to campaign for U.S.
Sen. Bill Hathaway, D-Maine, and to hold a town hall meeting. “I remember thinking, ‘This is unreal.
The president of the United States is in our living room,’ ” said Murray-Beliveau, now 76 and living in Portland. Carter stayed overnight at the home of Murray-Beliveau’s parents, Robert and Laura Murray, at the corner of Mt. Hope Avenue and Maple Street in Bangor.
The stay was among several visits the former president made to Maine while running for and serving in office, according to Murray-Beliveau and other current and former Mainers who recently recalled Carter’s time here ahead of his 100th birthday Tuesday. “Given all the angst we have in politics today, someone so genuine and truthful is really someone we ought to honor,” said William J. Allen, a forme.
