James Earl

            
             James Earl Carter was the 39th President of the United States of America. Jimmy Carter, as he preferred to be called, was born on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia. He was the oldest of four children and grew up near Plains, Georgia, where his father was a farmer and the owner/operator of a small country store. He attended school in Plains, Georgia, and was baptized in 1935 at the First Baptist Church of Plains, which strongly influenced his life. Jimmy Carter attended the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and graduated 5th out of a class of 820 in 1946. He married Rosalynn Smith in July 1946. He served in the U.S. Navy for seven years and studied nuclear physics at Union College in Schenectady, New York. He served on the crew of the nuclear submarine Sea Wolf. Jimmy Carter resigned from the Navy in 1953, following the death of his father, to return to Plains, Georgia, to oversee the operation of the family farm. After taking over the operation of the family farm, he started a fertilizer business, operated a cotton gin, a peanut-shelling plant, a farm supply company, and warehouses. By the time Jimmy Carter ran for president, he was the owner of more than 3,100 acres of land and his net worth was $600,000.00 and had total assets of $1 million.
             Jimmy Carter began his political career on the Sumner County school board serving as chairman. He also served as chairman of the county hospital authority, president of the Plains Development Corporation, and the president of the Crop Improvement Association. His first venture into government was in 1962, when he decided to run for state senator in Georgia after a new senatorial district was created during legislative reapportionment. He served two consecutive years as a Georgia state senator, during which time he built a strong record of fiscal conservatism and social liberalism, however, he was particularly interested in improving education.