James Earl Carter Sr.

James Earl Carter Sr.

Quick Facts

Significance:

Jimmy Carter's Father, Member of the Georgia House of Representatives from Sumter County

Place of Birth:

Arlington, Georgia

Date of Birth:

September 12, 1894

Place of Death:

Plains, Georgia

Date of Death:

July 22, 1953

James Earl Carter was born in Arlington, Georgia on September 12, 1894.
Earl Carter attended Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, Georgia where he stayed until the completion of 10th grade. After completing 10th grade, Earl worked as a traveling salesman in Texas. He used the profits he made selling flatirons to invest in an ice house and a laundry in Plains.

In December 1917, Earl Carter enlisted in the United States Army for service in World War I. Initially a private in Company I, 121st Infantry Regiment, he advanced through the ranks to sergeant before being selected for officer training school in August 1918. He completed the course at Camp Lee, Virginia on November 30, 1918. Because the Armistice had occurred earlier in the month, the Army was being reduced in size, so Earl Carter received his commission as a second lieutenant in the Georgia National Guard.

After his discharge from the Army, Earl Carter opened a grocery store on Main Street in Plains. His time as a traveling salesman had already instilled within Earl a strong work ethic. Now, as the owner of a small business, he undertook the routine of working from "sunrise until dark", "Monday morning until Saturday afternoon".

Earl Carter married Lillian Gordy Carter on September 27, 1923 in a Plains ceremony.
Lillian reflected that the couple had to adjust to their different interests, the two having differing political views and reading interests. Earl Carter's reading habits consisted of daily and weekly newspapers, farm journals, Richard Halliburton's The Royal Road to Romance, Arthur Conan Doyle stories of Sherlock Holmes, and the complete set of Tarzan tales by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

By the time his son Jimmy was four years old, Earl Carter had purchased a new home. When he took the children to see the house, he realized that he had left his key behind. A wooden bar allowed only a small space for the windows to open, too small to allow access for an adult. Earl sent Jimmy through the window to open the door. Many years later, President Carter would recollect that the "approval of my father for my first useful act has always been one of my most vivid memories." Around the time Jimmy was 13, the elder Carter became one of the first directors of the Rural Electrification Program, Jimmy recounting that his father learned the importance of political involvement on both a state and national level.

Earl Carter was a conservative in his political views. However, his son Jimmy recollected that, "within our family we never thought about trying to define such labels." Initially having supported Franklin D. Roosevelt, Earl opposed implementation of his New Deal when production control programs instituted under the Roosevelt administration included the slaughtering of hogs and plowing of cotton.

James Earl Carter, Sr. was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1953, as a Democrat, and served briefly representing Sumter County until his death later that year He died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 58.