Carter’s hometown shares love, keeps vigil for ‘Mr. Jimmy’

PLAINS, Georgia (NewsNation) — The normally quiet, small town of Plains, Georgia is getting a lot of attention after its most famous resident, former President Jimmy Carter, entered hospice care over the weekend.

Plains is a tiny town of fewer than 750 people with just a few blocks of retail businesses along the railroad tracks that run by Carter’s 1976 presidential headquarters, but it is big at heart.

Many residents aren’t willing to say goodbye, confident Carter will bounce back.

Although no longer their president, Mr. Jimmy, as locals call him, is most definitely still their neighbor. His decision to live out his days in his Plains home is less about a man who ascended to the highest office in the land, and more about a man from humble beginnings who is blanketed in a community where painting the curbs is a big deal.

It’s also a place where everyone has a story to share, like Bonita Hightower, the owner of Bonita’s Restaurant, who’s always happy to make Carter’s favorite meal whenever the former president’s son Chip calls up with a special request.

“One morning he woke up, Chip said, ‘Bonita, you got catfish? Dad wants some catfish.’ I got it! He ate it for breakfast,” Hightower recalled. “Yeah! he wanted it; that’s what he woke up saying, I want some catfish. I made it happen for him. You know you gotta make things happen for the man.”

Carter was born in Plains 98 years ago and in the near half-century since he won the presidency has come to symbolize more than a small town mailing address

Hightower said she’s keeping the cornmeal and frying oil ready, so she’ll be ready when Carter’s son calls again.