II.

Early Life

James Earl Carter, Jr., was born on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, a farming community of 600 people. He was the oldest of four children. His father was a peanut farmer and storekeeper. Jimmy Carter worked on the farm, but he had an uncle in the United States Navy who sent him postcards from exotic ports, so as a boy he dreamed of attending the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He was the first member of his family ever to go to college, starting at Georgia Southwestern College in 1941 for a year, followed by a year at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He then went to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, graduating in 1946, ranked 60th in a class of 820.

After his graduation, Carter married Rosalynn Smith, his high school sweetheart, also from Plains. She became an essential partner in all phases of his life, from the peanut farming business to politics. The Carters had three sons, John William, James Earl III, and Donnel Jeffrey, and a daughter, Amy Lynn.