The essence of power is a towel
Editor’s note: This story originally ran in The Smoky Mountain News in November 2018 following Politics Editor Cory Vaillancourt’s trip to Georgia to meet President Jimmy Carter. The former president died Dec. 29, 2024.
There, in Sumter County, Georgia, not far from the Alabama line lies the tiny town of Plains (pop. 784), a most unremarkable place home to a most remarkable man.
Godspeed, President Carter
To the Editor:
Not being particularly tearful yesterday (Dec. 29) was a terrible moment for me. It was the day that marked the passing of President Carter, a man of unsurpassed moral integrity.
Here’s to a stronger sense of community in 2025
In listening to the tributes regarding the death of President Jimmy Carter, a phrase from his inauguration speech struck a chord: “…. individual sacrifice for the common good.”
Election fraud claims are just that — a fraud
The looming 1980 presidential election was all over the news, the unpopular incumbent Jimmy Carter facing the charismatic former actor and California Gov. Ronald Reagan. A college junior in Boone walked into the Watauga County Board of Elections sometime in September and registered to vote in his first presidential election.
A lesson from First Lady Rosalynn Carter
“Climb the mountain so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.”
— David McCullough Jr.
The essence of power is a towel
There, in Sumter County, Georgia, not far from the Alabama line lies the tiny town of Plains (pop. 784), a most unremarkable place home to a most remarkable man.
Home for President Jimmy Carter has always been the clay roads and cotton fields of Plains, except when he was at Annapolis, in the Navy, or serving as state senator or governor or president.