The 39th and longest-lived U.S. president, James Earl Carter Jr., died Sunday at the age of 100. His life ended where it began: in the tiny town he left and came home to many times as he climbed to the nation’s highest office, lost it after four tumultuous years and then spent the next 40 redefining what it means to be a former president. Around his 90th birthday, Carter wrote that looking back, all the phases of his life were challenging, but also successful and enjoyable. The Democrat’s principled and pragmatic approach defied American political labels, especially the idea that one-term presidents are failures.
