I had brief sightings and chats with President Carter over the years, the most recent in his Sunday school class about seven years ago. I asked him about Judge Frank Johnson, the great Lincoln Republican of Alabama. I like to think my Grandfather Jordan born in 1881 had things in common with Frank Johnson. Carter said Johnson was the greatest American of his life time 

    Carter was a great American. Even Marshall Frady came around to saying as much after taking his measure in the seventies in Life magazine.

     I first saw Carter in 74 at Furman. Earlier he had lunch with Furman Chaplain Jim Pitts and Furman legend  Martin England, a friend of Martln Luther King. That was on the occasion of SC SBC presenting their Civic leader of the yearOn Sunday Jan 12 Trave Robertson with Jane Robelot on WYFF in Greenville SC said Carter's New South Governorship in Ga had reverberations up I  85 corridor in Upstate SC with the Jewish Mayor of Greenville Max Heller into the governor era of Richard Riley. Lot of industry can be attributed to the Carter era in SC. My cousin Tim Wood married the niece of SC Treasurer  Grady Patterson. Paterson said SC refused to take bonds from South Africa because of the vision of Carter and his reverberations.

   My friend at Dartmouth Randall Balmer wrote the political history of Carter and was present June 2 2017 when researching the book. Adrian Rogers, Jesse Helms and Paul Pressler are the bad boys in that story.

      I talked to Carter in Americus 2012 or so during a convocation there. Told him about Baxter Wynn as nephew of Lester Maddox. He may have already known.

   Remarkable life and remarkable man kind of Baptist of my Dad's generation chocked full of integrity and moving forward for the times.