Jimmy Carter's grandson Jason speaks out on former president's life, legacy

Though Jimmy Carter was a U.S. president, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and the founder of a global organization, The Carter Center, to his more than one dozen grandchildren and great-grandchildren, he was a grandfather first and foremost, his grandson Jason Carter told "Good Morning America."

"He’s an interesting guy, but he really was a grandfather to me first," Jason Carter said in a live interview Tuesday on "GMA," just days after the former president's death on Dec. 29, at age 100.

"He was my grandfather so I have a lot of memories, like others do, of him taking me fishing or sitting around and talking about what I should do in my life," Jason Carter continued. "When I graduated from college, he and I sat down and I said, 'What would you do if you were me?,' and he said, 'I would go to Africa and join the Peace Corps,' and so I did that."

Jimmy Carter is survived by four children and around two dozen grandchildren and great-grandchildren, according to the Jimmy Carter Library.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter, who died on Nov. 19, 2023, at age 96.

Jason Carter, the son of the Carters' eldest child, John William "Jack" Carter, described his grandparents' decades-long marriage as "one of the great American love stories."

He said a photo of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter kissing each other amid the backdrop of the U.S. presidency shows who they really were at heart, two people who remained in love after meeting in the small town of Plains, Georgia.

"He spent eight years in politics, and the other 92 years he spent at home in Plains, Georgia," Jason Carter said of his grandfather. "Obviously, working around the world, doing things for The Carter Center and otherwise, but really, he was a small-town guy who lived out that faith that is reflected in that picture and the love that is reflected in that picture."

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Jason Carter, who plans to deliver a eulogy at his grandfather's funeral on Jan. 9, said he sees his grandfather's legacy as one of someone who stayed true to himself even while reaching the highest heights of power.

During his own political career, including a run for Georgia governor in 2014, Jason Carter said he tried to follow in his grandfather's footsteps in that way.

"He's one of those people who demonstrates that you can be in politics and not change who you are, that you can be an honest person, a person who lives out his faith and love in the real world, and still be in politics, and I think that was my hope," he said. "Our politics is messy, and he was always one of those rare people who was able to reach the highest levels of it without compromising who he was, and we talked about that aspect of it a lot."

Now, as his family moves forward after the death of their patriarch, Jason Carter said they are reflecting on the annual New Year's family vacation that Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter hosted every year and sharing memories of sipping champagne together on New Year's Eve.

As they look ahead to the new year, Jason Carter said he and his family want to continue their grandfather's work at The Carter Center, which describes itself as a "nongovernmental organization that helps to improve lives by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy and preventing diseases."

"He built this remarkable organization over 40 years that's really been his life's work," Jason Carter said of The Carter Center, of which he has served as chair of the board. "There's 3,000 employees that work all over the world ... and of those 3,000 employees, only a couple hundred are in the U.S., and the rest are in Ethiopia or Sudan or Mali or Chad or Bangladesh, the places where the center can do the most good for the most people."