As close relatives circle the Plains, Georgia home of 98-year-old former US President Jimmy Carter who is receiving hospice care following years of health challenges, I’d like to reflect on his forgotten and brief connection to East St. Louis through former Mayor Carl E. Officer.
Thanks to YouTube and archived KSDK news footage, and captured for posterity, is a beaming, suave, youthful 28-year-old Mayor Officer, emerging from the presidential limo with the 39th president, at the corner of Collinsville and Missouri Avenue at 1:21p.m. on Monday, November 3, 1980, one day before Carter lost the presidency to Ronald Reagan.
On that November 3rd day, Officer accompanied Carter from Granite City to an electric crowd waiting in downtown East St. Louis, then on to Airforce One at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis.
Carter, plagued by record high inflation, soaring gas prices at the pump and an Iranian hostage crisis that weakened his credibility with voters, was making his final campaign swing and stopped in East Boogie, a democratic stronghold, as a last-ditch effort to salvage his job.
But aside from Carter’s short-comings during his single-term as president, Officer agreed that President Carter’s successes in brokering peace between Egypt and Israel during the Camp David Accords, his resulting Nobel Peace Prize, and his work as a humanitarian, particularly through Habitat for Humanity, will be his enduring legacy.
But crowds in East St. Louis were excited to see the Georgia peanut farmer turned president and their newly elected rockstar mayor, side-by-side, which was something brought into fruition through Officer’s friendship with Carter.
“I was introduced to Jimmy in 1975 by former Atlanta mayor Maynard Jackson and Georgia state Rep. Julian Bond during my run for St. Clair County Coroner. That friendship led to an eventual meeting with President Carter on November 7, 1979, at the White House, then the subsequent visit to East St. Louis in 1980”, said Officer during our recent interview on the life of his friend.
Today, Officer proudly displays the White House photo of he and the former president in his Officer Funeral Home office remarking that “I found him to be such a kind, gracious and genuine man”.
Then Officer went on to recall, with a chuckle that, during the roughly 30 minutes he spent riding in the presidential limousine, he precociously attempted to offer Carter advice on resolving the Iranian hostage crisis.
“He didn’t follow my advice, but he listened”, the former mayor said while laughing at his own youthful naivete and bravado at the time.
But aside from Carter’s short-comings during his single-term as president, Officer agreed that President Carter’s successes in brokering peace between Egypt and Israel during the Camp David Accords, his resulting Nobel Peace Prize, and his work as a humanitarian, particularly through Habitat for Humanity, will be his enduring legacy.
Officer seemed to wonder aloud what might have been (for East St. Louis) had Carter been elected to a second term or if he had accepted an offer to join Vice President Walter Mondale’s staff, which he says he declined in order to pursue the job at East St. Louis City Hall.
Hindsight is always 20/20 vision, however as Canadian writer Robin Sharma said “The real trick is to turn hindsight into foresight. That reveals insight.”
So, Godspeed to President Jimmy Carter on a life well-lived with decency, humanity, civility and spirituality.
Email: jtingram_1960@yahoo.com Twitter@JamesTIngram