In One of His Final Interviews, Jimmy Carter Looked Back at His Life's Work and Having Rosalynn by His Side (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Former President Jimmy Carter at Habitat for Humanity in October.Photo: AFF-USA/Shutterstock

Five yearsbefore he died on Dec. 29 at 100 years old, former President Jimmy Carter gave his final PEOPLE interview — and one of his final interviews ever — from a bustling construction site in Tennessee, where he and wife Rosalynn were helping build homes for those in need, just as they had for decades.

At the time, Carter looked back at his many years of public service and shared some of the lessons he had learned from his longevity and hisenduring marriage. (His wifedied in 2023at 96.)

Below is the original PEOPLE story from Carter’s last interview, published in October 2019.

For the record,Jimmy Carternever expected to live this long either.

That’s what he told PEOPLE with a smile as he took a break from helping build Habitat for Humanity houses in Nashville, Tenn. For 36 years, he and wifeRosalynn Carterhave led an annual build for Habitat, erecting and fixing up more than 4,000 homes.

The partnership has inextricably bound them together — Habitat and the organization’s most famous supporters, there almost since the beginning.

TheCarter Work Projectbegan.

This year alone the Carters helped build 21 homes in the Nashville area, expanding a neighborhood Habitat first started about 10 years ago.

“One of the things Jesus taught was: If you have any talents, try to utilize them for the benefit of others,” says President Carter, now 95. “That’s what Rosa and I have both tried to do.”

They arrived in Tennessee only hoursafter he fell at his homein Plains, Georgia, requiring 14 stitches on his head and leaving him with a nasty black eye. But if cancer hadn’t kept him from Habitat four years ago,why should this?

“I had a No. 1 priority and that was to come to Nashville to build houses,” he told a crowd the night after his fall, rallying them to begin building for Habitat that week. By his side, Mrs. Carter, 92, said: “I look forward to this week all year long.”

Former President Jimmy Carter (right) at the Carter Work Project construction site with Habitat for Humanity in Nashville, Tennessee, earlier this month.AFF-USA/Shutterstock

“I just thought I had a few weeks left, but I was surprisingly at ease,” Cartersaid at the time. “I’ve had a full life, I have thousands of friends … so I was surprisingly at ease, much more so than my wife was.”

Within months, the cancer was gone following successful surgery and innovative immunotherapeutic treatments. That November, the Carters were back at their annual Habitat build.

“It’s hard to live until you’re 95 years old,” he tells PEOPLE. “I think the best explanation for that is to marry the best spouse: someone who will take care of you and engage and do things to challenge you and keep you alive and interested in life.”

He and Mrs. Carter,married since 1946, “have had a good life together,” he says. Decades of memories bond them as do some of their shared hobbies, including bird-watching (“Rosa and I have seen about 1,300 different species of bird”), tennis (they have a court behind their house) and, yes, downhill skiing — which they took up when he was 62.

Older now and physically frailer (President Carter actually uses the word “decrepit”), the couple plan only one year in advance. Theysavor periodic pausesin the public life from which neither will yet retire.

But there is always more work to do. That’s something to savor, in its way, as well.

Former President Jimmy Carter at the Carter Work Project construction site with Habitat for Humanity in Nashville, Tennessee, earlier this month.AFF-USA/Shutterstock

“We can take a lot of pride out of the folks with whom we meet,” President Carter says.

“Sometimes, when we go into a community where we built houses maybe 35 years ago, or 25, 20 years ago, we try to visit those Habitat sites just to look at them and meet some of the longtime home owners,” he says. “They’re very proud of their house. We never find any houses that we have built with graffiti on the outside walls or with broken windows or un-mowed lawns. … They set an example for everybody that lives around [them].”

In 2020, the Carters plan to travel with Habitat to the Dominican Republic.

“I think both mine and Rosa’s minds are almost as good as they used to be, we just have limited capability on stamina and strength,” he says. “But we still try to stay busy and do a good job at what we do.”

source: people.com