Editing Jimmy Carter (section)

== Early life ==
[[File:The Carter family store in the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park.jpg|thumb|alt=A rural storehouse with a small windmill next to it|The Carter family store, part of [[Jimmy Carter National Historical Park|Carter's Boyhood Farm]], in [[Plains, Georgia]]]]

James Earl Carter Jr. was born on October 1, 1924, in [[Plains, Georgia]], at the [[Wise Sanitarium]], where his mother worked as a registered nurse.{{sfn|Godbold|2010|p=9}} Carter was the first U.S. president born in a hospital.{{sfn|Bourne|1997|pp=11–32}} He was the eldest child of [[Bessie Lillian Gordy]] and [[James Earl Carter Sr.]], and a descendant of English immigrant Thomas Carter, who settled in the [[Colony of Virginia]] in 1635.{{sfn|Kaufman|Kaufman|2013|p=70}}{{sfn|Carter|2012|p=10}} In Georgia, numerous generations of Carters worked as cotton farmers.{{sfn|Bourne|1997|p=9}} Carter's father was a successful local businessman who ran a [[general store]] and was an investor in farmland;{{sfn|Bourne|1997|p=114}} he had served as a reserve second lieutenant in the [[U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps]] during [[World War I]].{{sfn|Bourne|1997|p=114}}

During Carter's infancy, his family moved several times, settling on a dirt road in nearby [[Archery, Georgia|Archery]], which was almost entirely populated by impoverished Black families.{{sfn|Bourne|1997|pp=11–32}}{{sfn|Biven|2002|p=57}} His family eventually had three more children, [[Gloria Carter Spann|Gloria]], [[Ruth Carter Stapleton|Ruth]], and [[Billy Carter|Billy]].{{sfn|Flippen|2011|p=25}} Carter had a good relationship with his parents, even though his mother was often absent during his childhood since she worked long hours. Although his father was staunchly [[Racial segregation in the United States|pro-segregation]], he allowed Jimmy to befriend the Black farmhands' children.{{sfn|Newton|2016|p=172}} Carter was an enterprising teenager who was given his own acre of Earl's farmland, where he grew and sold peanuts.{{sfn|Hamilton|2005|p=334}} Carter also rented out a section of tenant housing he had purchased.{{sfn|Bourne|1997|pp=11–32}}

=== Education ===
Carter attended Plains High School from 1937 to 1941, graduating from the 11th grade; the school did not have a 12th grade.{{sfn|National Park Service|2020}} By that time, Archery and Plains had been impoverished by the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]], but the family benefited from [[New Deal]] farming subsidies, and Carter's father became a community leader.{{sfn|Hamilton|2005|p=334}}{{sfn|Hayward|2004|loc=The Plain Man from Plains}} Carter was a diligent student with a fondness for reading.{{sfn|Hobkirk|2002|p=8}} According to a popular anecdote, he was passed over for [[valedictorian]] after he and his friends skipped school to venture downtown in a [[hot rod]] (although it is not clear he would otherwise have been valedictorian).{{sfnm|Bourne|1997|1pp=33–43|Alter|2020|2p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=QwAAEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA45 45]}} Carter played on the Plains High School basketball team and joined [[Future Farmers of America]], which helped him develop a lifelong interest in woodworking.{{sfn|Bourne|1997|pp=33–43}}

Carter had long dreamed of attending the [[United States Naval Academy]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2005|p=334}} In 1941, he started undergraduate coursework in engineering at [[Georgia Southwestern College]] in nearby Americus, Georgia.{{sfn|Panton|2022|p=99}} The next year, Carter transferred to the [[Georgia School of Technology]] (now Georgia Tech) in Atlanta, where civil rights icon [[Blake Van Leer]] was president.{{sfn|Rattini|2020}} While at Georgia Tech, Carter took part in the [[Reserve Officers' Training Corps]].{{sfn|Balmer|2014|p=34}} Van Leer encouraged Carter to join the Naval Academy.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Archives |title=The Colonel |url=https://vanleerarchives.org/the-colonel/ |website=Van Leer Family Archives & History |date=January 21, 2020 |access-date=January 8, 2025 |archive-date=January 12, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250112012827/https://vanleerarchives.org/the-colonel/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1943, he received an appointment to the Naval Academy from U.S. Representative [[Stephen Pace (politician)|Stephen Pace]], and Carter graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 1946.{{sfn|Hobkirk|2002|p=38}}{{sfn|Balmer|2014|p=34}} He was a good student, but was seen as reserved and quiet, in contrast to the academy's culture of aggressive hazing of freshmen.{{sfn|Kaufman|Kaufman|2013|p=62}} While at the academy, Carter fell in love with [[Rosalynn Smith]], a friend of his sister Ruth.{{sfn|Wertheimer|2004|p=343}} The two wed shortly after his graduation in 1946, and were married until her death on November 19, 2023.{{sfn|Bourne|1997|pp=44–55}}{{sfn|Barrow|Warren|2023}} Carter was a [[sprint football]] player for the [[Navy Midshipmen]] and a standout freshman [[Navy Midshipmen cross country|cross country runner]].{{sfn|Hingston|2016}}<ref>{{cite web |title=On the road with Carter ROADRUNNER Continued from Page A1 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-on-the-road-with-carter/161959991/ |work=[[The Boston Globe]] |access-date=December 31, 2024 |page=91 |date=November 11, 1979}}</ref> He graduated 60th out of 821 midshipmen in the class of 1947{{efn|The Naval Academy's Class of 1947 graduated in 1946 as a result of World War II.{{sfn|Argetsinger|1996}}}} with a Bachelor of Science degree and was commissioned as an [[Ensign (rank)|ensign]].{{sfn|Alter|2020|p=59}}