PENNSYLVANIA, USA — This past weekend news broke that America's longest-surviving president, Jimmy Carter, would be entering hospice care.
Larry Cook, of Luzerne County, is a presidential historian and has also been a personal friend of President Carter for more than 20 years.
"My wife surprised me with a birthday gift to Plains, Georgia because she heard the President Carter would teach Sunday school," said Cook in a Zoom interview. "I wrote President Carter a letter telling him how much I appreciated the Sunday school lesson and how much we like this town, and he hand wrote me a letter back and said y'all come back to see us, so we did."
Cook and his wife invited Carter to our area several times.
Back in 2011, the 39th president came to Plains Township in Luzerne County to help benefit his hometown of Plains, Georgia.
"We coordinated an auction for them, and we held out in Plains, Pennsylvania, and the Carters came up for that. It took us about a year to coordinate that auction and get everything set," said Cook.
The president would come back to the Keystone State a few more times.
In 2013, he addressed a crowd of hundreds at the Wyoming monument.
"President Carter loves history," said Cook. "We had told him a lot about the monument, and so wondered one day when we were here having lunch here in Plains, Georgia, I asked him I said we're gonna would you give a speech there because I told him Teddy Roosevelt had been there, Rutherford Hayes been there and he said sure."
Although it was not his home state, Cook says President Carter always had a connection to Pennsylvania.
"Gosh, I think over 30 years every year he would come up near State College, and I believe it was fishing every year," said Cook. "He had been to actually to Pittston, Pennsylvania when he was campaigning for president. He loved northeastern Pennsylvania. He loved the fact that there was a town there named Plains."
President Carter became the oldest living president after the passing of George H.W. Bush, who died in late 2018 at age 94.
98-year-old Carter has been involved with many organizations like Habitat for Humanity and the Carter Center.
Back in 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for undertaking peace negotiations, campaigning for human rights, and working for social welfare.
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