Photos: Jimmy Carter, from the White House to building houses

(NEXSTAR) - Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, died Sunday after he began receiving home hospice care in February 2023. He was 100 years old.

Carter, the longest-living American president, had undergone a series of short hospital stays in the months leading up to hospice care, The Carter Center previously confirmed. He had "decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention.”

Ultimately, he "died peacefully Sunday, Dec. 29, at his home in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family," the Carter Center said.

Carter is preceded in death by his wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who died in November 2023. They had celebrated their 77th wedding anniversary just a few months earlier after Rosalynn was diagnosed with dementia.

Photos: Jimmy Carter through the years

Carter, previously governor of Georgia, beat then-President Gerald R. Ford for the presidency in 1976. He served a single term before being defeated by Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.

But Carter didn't ride off into the sunset after his landslide loss. Instead, he went on to spend decades on global advocacy for democracy, public health, and human rights via The Carter Center.

The center was opened in 1982 by Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, now 95. Carter received a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his work through the center.

Carter, who has lived most of his life in Plains, Georgia, traveled extensively into his 80s and early 90s, including annual trips to build homes with Habitat for Humanity and frequent trips abroad as part of The Carter Center's election monitoring and its effort to eradicate the Guinea worm parasite in developing countries. But the former president's health declined over his 10th decade of life, especially as the coronavirus pandemic limited his public appearances, including at his beloved Maranatha Baptist Church where he taught Sunday School lessons for decades before standing-room-only crowds of visitors.

In August 2015, Carter had a small cancerous mass removed from his liver. The following year, Carter announced that he needed no further treatment, as an experimental drug had eliminated any sign of cancer.

Carter was born Oct. 1, 1924, to a prominent family in rural south Georgia. He went on to the U.S. Naval Academy during World War II and pursued a career as a Cold War Naval officer before returning to Georgia with Rosalynn and their young family to take over the family peanut business after Earl Carter's death in the 1950s.

A moderate Democrat, the younger Carter rapidly climbed from the local school board to the state Senate and then the Georgia governor's office. He began his White House bid as an underdog with a broad smile, outspoken Baptist mores and policy plans reflecting his education as an engineer. He connected with many Americans because of his promise not to deceive the American people after Nixon’s disgrace and U.S. defeat in southeast Asia.

“If I ever lie to you, if I ever make a misleading statement, don’t vote for me. I would not deserve to be your president,” Carter said often as he campaigned.

Carter said after leaving office that he had underestimated the importance of dealing with Washington power brokers, including the media and lobbying forces anchored in the nation's capital. But he insisted his overall approach was sound and that he achieved his primary objectives — to “protect our nation’s security and interests peacefully” and “enhance human rights here and abroad” — even if he fell spectacularly short of a second term.

And years later, upon his cancer diagnosis as a nonagenarian, he expressed satisfaction with his long life.

“I’m perfectly at ease with whatever comes,” he said in 2015. “I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.