Here I am with President Jimmy Carter and his niece, who delivered the Sunday school service in his place. At first, we though Carter would not be there, and it was only the 2nd time in 30 years that he had cancelled an appearance at his church in Plains, Georgia. A couple times a month, he does a Sunday school service and then will do photos with visitors after the sermon. On this weekend, his wife, Roselyn, was in the hospital and had surgery on her intestines. When he found out she was stable, he came down from Atlanta to attend the services (arriving a bit late) but had his niece give the service. It is just a small church and he sat just one row over from me and other than the two secret service agents, you wouldn't have known who he was. We had to go through a handheld metal detector before entering the church, but again, it was all very low key. Oh, and we couldn't have a purse. The lady that was stricter than the secret service agents was the owner of the local antique shop/hotel! She lined us up outside the church, had us get rid of our purses and stood in front of President Carter during the intermission so that no one could approach him. She took her job very seriously and you can tell the deep affection she has for President and Mrs. Carter.
It was a once in a lifetime experience. Thanks to seeing my aunt Barbara's photo albums, I know that my Grandmother and Granddaddy also made the trip to Plains, Georgia sometime in the late 1970s. I got my picture taken in front of the giant peanut just as my Granddaddy did!
I went with my law school's Democrats Society. There was one other person here, not pictured.
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