Navy service, Sunday School teacher: 5 interesting facts about Jimmy Carter

December 30, 2024

Former president Jimmy Carter, who passed away Sunday at the age of 100, served as the 39th President of the United States after being elected in 1976.

Outside of his political career, Carter was best known for his charity work, his books and his service as a Sunday School teacher.

The Christian Post has compiled 5 interesting facts about former president Carter that you might not have known.

  1. Jimmy Carter served in the U.S. Navy after graduating with distinction from the Naval Academy in 1946. Carter first served on the U.S.S. Wyoming and then was assigned to duty aboard the submarine SSK. He also served with the Naval Reactors Branch of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in Washington D.C. before he was honorably discharged in Oct 1953. A submarine was later named in his honor.
  2. Carter was the first U.S. president to be a member of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Carter was lauded for championing strong families and promoting unity in the broader Christian family. He would later leave the SBC over theological differences including questions of not allowing women to become pastors and biblical inerrancy.
  3. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter earned the distinction of having the longest lasting marriage of a presidential couple. The couple married in 1946 and were together for 77 years, raising a family of four children and more than 20 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
  4. Carter taught Sunday School for more than 40 years at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. An Atlanta television station dubbed Carter “the world’s best known Sunday School Teacher” and noted that many of the people attending his classes were not members of MBC. The former president continued teaching in 2015 while he was battling brain cancer and only stopped teaching in 2020 due to age-related illnesses and the covid pandemic.
  5. For more than 35 years, Carter was a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. In addition to being an advocate and fundraiser for the charity, the former president actively helped build houses, even after turning 90. Carter and his wife were both heavily involved with the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project.

Photo: top, Credit: Scott Olsen/Getty Images