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Curt Menefee announces death of former President Jimmy Carter during FOX NFL Sunday

Brian Jones Profile Picby:Brian Jones•12/29/24•

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Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Fox Sports’ Curt Menefee announced the death of former President Jimmy Carter on Fox NFL Sunday. Carter died at the age of 100 on Sunday afternoon.

“He had been suffering from brain cancer for more than a year,” Menefee said. “The former president lived to be 100 years old, making him the longest-living ex-president in U.S. history. He won the Nobel Peace Prize back in 2002 and has really, really been a courage for everyone else. His work for Habitat for Humanity probably shines brighter than his term as president.”

Carter entered home hospice care in Plains, Georgia in February 2023 after a series of hospital stays. He won the presidential election in 1976 after defeating Republican President Gerald Ford. Carter was President for just one term after losing to Ronald Reagan in November 1980.

In October, Carter celebrated his 100th birthday “Not everybody gets 100 years on this earth, and when somebody does, and when they use that time to do so much good for so many people, it’s worth celebrating,” his grandson Jason Carter, chair of The Carter Center governing board, said in an interview, per the Associated Press.

“These last few months, 19 months, now that he’s been in hospice, it’s been a chance for our family to reflect,” he continued, “and then for the rest of the country and the world to really reflect on him. That’s been a really gratifying time.”

Because Carter was born and raised in Georgia, he was a lifelong Atlanta Braves fan. He attended multiple Braves games, including the team’s final game at Turner Field in October 2016.

During his time as President, Carter made NFL history, becoming the first president to welcome a Super Bowl champion to the White House (Pittsburgh Steelers in 1980), according to ESPN.

In his final year as President (1980) Carter announced the United States would boycott the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow to protest the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. More than 60 countries boycotted the Olympics, including China, Japan and West Germany.

Before Carter was president, he was a Georgia senator and governor in the 1960s and 1970s. He married his wife Rosalynn in 1946, and she died on Nov. 19, 2023, at the age of 96. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are survived by their three sons and a daughter, as well as multiple grandchildren and great-grandchildren.