Longest living U.S. president dead at 100

President Joe Biden has ordered a state funeral in Washington D.C. In the coming weeks, Carter's body will be taken back to Georgia, where he'll be laid to rest beside a willow tree alongside his wife, Rosalynn.

BRUNSWICK COUNTY (WWAY)–Former President Jimmy Carter died at 100 years old. He was the longest-living President in U.S. history, but he’s known for much more than that. After serving from 1977 to 1981, Carter won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, but to a Brunswick County resident and business owner, he was a neighbor and a family friend.
To you and I, this is President Jimmy Carter, but for Brunswick County resident Jeff Moss and his friend Ellen Harris, this is Mr. Jimmy from next door in Plains, GA.

“When you grow up in a town of 670 people, it’s hard not to know your neighbors,” Moss said.

Harris is still in Plains and manages The Historic Inn and Antique Mall, but her relationship with the Carters goes back a long way.

“His niece Kim Fuller and I have been friends all of our lives. I was involved with getting the Jimmy Carter boyhood farm and getting the land for that for the National Historic Park, and I’ve worked on boards with him, and he would come into the antique mall when he was able to,” Moss said.

Moss now lives in Southport and owns a College Hunks Moving Company in Leland, but his family is still in Plains, and so are his memories of Mr. Carter.

“My dad was an agricultural farmer. So, he and President Carter were friends before he was President. When I was 12, he was elected President,” Moss explained.

However, whether it was before, during, or after his presidency, they were all still just neighbors.

“It boiled down to if you asked him to do it and he could, he would,” Moss said.

Sometimes, the Carters did the asking. Moss says one of his funniest memories of Carter happened when he was in the band in seventh grade.

“Going to Washington for the Cherry Blossom parade,” Moss said.

The chaperones told them not to play on the phones in the hotel rooms.

“Well, the phone in my hotel room rang, and I looked at my roommate, and I’m like, Well, I’m not ratting anybody out, so I just picked up the receiver and hung it up,” Moss explained.

Then, there was a knock at the door.

“There was a chaperone, and they said well, ‘Who was that on the phone?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know. I picked it up and hung it up.’ And then, it rang, and I had no choice but to answer it. Is this Jeff Moss? Yeah. Jeff, this is the White House calling. President Carter and Mrs. Carter want you to bring the band over for a reception tomorrow,” Moss shared.

Moss says the chaperones knew the call was coming the whole time.

“Mrs.Roselyn’s mother, Ms. Ally, set that whole thing up,” Moss said.

And Moss was only trying to follow the rules.

“And I hung up on the White House! That’s the story,” Moss shared.

He has funny stories, but also some special ones, including the day Moss joined the military.

“He swore me into the United States Army. He signed my commission and provided me the oath of office,” Moss said.

And that’s just the beginning-

“We got wedding gifts from him, birthday cards, books. He even sent me a letter about a week before Operation Desert Storm started, so I’m over there in Operation Desert Shield in the middle of the Saudi desert and get a letter,” Moss said.

The letter didn’t have a stamp on it.

“Former presidents don’t use stamps. Their stamp is their signature. Mail call and here’s a letter. Jimmy Carter and he’s written me a personal letter just basically saying I’m proud of you,” Moss shared.

However, Moss and Harris say he was so much more than a president.

“He used his fame as president to lead people to the lord.”

Harris says people would line up outside of their church on Sundays to try to see Carter.

“Camping out in the parking lot so that they could get first in the church,” Moss said.

Moss says he’d come in and teach Sunday School, then start walking around and talking to people.

“Then he would say, ‘If you want to meet Roselyn and me and get a picture, we’ll be outside after church, so people had to sit through Sunday school and church if they wanted to meet him, so they got two hours of preachin’,” Moss shared.

Through all of their stories, there is something they kept preaching about Carter.

“I would just ask people to part the politics for a moment and think about Jimmy Carter, the man. Jimmy Carter, the servant of God. Jimmy Carter, the person who won the Nobel Peace Prize for serving humanity, knows that from two people who have known him a long time, you didn’t see a facade. You saw the real thing. He’s Coca-Cola.. *haha* he’s the real thing,” Moss shared.

In the history books, he will be remembered as President Jimmy Carter, but for Moss and Harris, and most of Plains, Georgia, he will be in their hearts and their memories as Mr. Jimmy next door.

President Joe Biden has ordered a state funeral in Washington D.C. In the coming weeks, Carter’s body will be taken back to Georgia, where he’ll be laid to rest beside a willow tree alongside his wife, Rosalynn. Senator Thom Tillis has released a statement, saying he and his wife extend their “deepest condolences and prayers to the entire Carter family.”