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The SAM Shortline running the Peanut Express line sits behind the Plains train depot, Jimmy Carter's former campaign headquarters, on Sept. 28, 2024.
Credit: Sofi Gratas/GPB News
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100th birthday celebrations for Jimmy Carter get early start on the Peanut Express
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LISTEN: Jimmy Carter turned 100 years old Oct. 1, 2024. He's the oldest-living president in U.S. history. His hometown of Plains celebrated, and GPB's Sofi Gratas was on the scene.
PLAINS, Ga. — Jimmy Carter turned 100 years old Oct. 1. He's the oldest living president — and the oldest in U.S. history.
On the weekend before his milestone birthday, passengers aboard the SAM's Shortline Peanut Express shared their thoughts on former President Carter’s legacy, while en route to Carter’s hometown for the annual Peanut Festival, which the Carters helped make into one of the small town’s biggest attractions.
The train runs on the same track that Carter and his supporters rode to Washington, D.C., upon his presidential win. Back then, it was called the Peanut Special.
"I tell everybody here that our train is longer than the whole town," said train volunteer Sam McMurray.
Carter's father was a peanut farmer. As a young boy, Jimmy Carter is said to have sold boiled peanuts to residents in Plains, and later, in adulthood, he worked the family business upon his return from the Navy.
Along its trip from Cordele to Plains, the train barrels past some of the big, red carts used in peanut processing, part of Jimmy Carter's history.
Though Carter's Southern roots were often used against him in his runs for office, Patty Taylor, another train volunteer, embraces them in her presentations to passengers. She shares one of her favorite tidbits of Carter lore, about "J-Who the Depot Dog," buried at the old train depot in town.
"That was his nickname in the headlines," Taylor laughs. "You know, 'J Who's running for president? Who is this person?'"
Though he only served one term, Carter would go on to create the Department of Education, hire more women and people of color to the federal government than ever before, and win the Nobel Peace Prize.
"They didn't come from the — the political arena," Taylor says of the former president and first lady. "You know, they just wanted to serve the country. And they really donated their whole life to service."
As the train arrives into the old depot downtown, Carter's former campaign headquarters, the Peanut Parade gets going. It only runs the length of about six buildings. Though Plains was spared the devastation from Hurrican Helene, some peanut vendors are missing this year, and the crowd is thinner than usual. The storm ripped through peanut and cotton fields in south and central Georgia only days before causing widespread damage.
Jimmy Carter also stayed home this year. He’s been under hospice care since last February. The last time Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were seen together in public was at the annual parade last year.
Neighbor Martha Fennessy says she misses seeing the Carters around.
"They used to walk in front of my house all the time," Fennessy said. "He made you feel special."
To celebrate, Fennessy made a special costume for her dog, Abby.
"What I did [is] I made a sign that said 'Happy Birthday President Carter. Happy 100th birthday.'" It hangs on Abby's back secured by party ribbons.
At one point, Fennessy joins in with others at the parade, to sing Carter "happy birthday."
“Sing loud so he can hear you up at his house which is just up the way," says the parade marshall through a loud speaker. And they do.
Back on the train, Carter gets more birthday wishes from passengers. Among them are best friends Lizzy Battle and Lutherine Young from Thomasville in South Georgia.
"We voted for him back in the day, and Jimmy Carter is in our era," Battle said.
"There was so many changes, even for us as Black people," Young said. "He didn't look down on and say that he makes sure that there was equality amongst us ... I think he was a fearless man."
Fearless for his principles, they say, but also for showing the world how just far a peanut farmer could go.
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