Carter, Plains mayor dedicate life to town
The longtime mayor of Jimmy Carter’s hometown, a self-described conservative, doesn’t talk politics with the Democratic former president.
The two men from Plains have always had other matters to discuss.
Together, they’ve helped plan the town’s Fourth of July fireworks, its annual Peanut Festival and Christmas events. For years, they socialized over barbecue or a low-country boil when the mayor hosted Carter’s birthday parties.
They’re on separate sides of the political aisle, but partisan topics didn’t come up.
“I respected his opinion. I guess he respected mine,” said Mayor L.E. “Boze” Godwin III. “He didn’t fuss at me about it.”
Their common ground is this tiny town that they’ve both faithfully served.
The mayor, a quietspoken man first elected to the nonpartisan office more than three decades ago, prefers to stay behind the scenes. He’s seen Plains fill with visitors and reporters since last Saturday’s announcement that Carter has entered home hospice care.
Godwin got to know Carter 70-odd years ago when Carter led his Boy Scout troop.
As a delivery boy for his family’s drug store, he would ride his bicycle to Carter’s home to drop off medicine.
Years later, when Carter left the White House and returned to Plains, the two worked side-by-side on the board of the Better Hometown Program. The civic group played a key role in the Main Street opening of the Plains Historic Inn and sponsored events.
Godwin thinks Carter’s dedication to his hometown has kept Plains going. The president’s Sunday school lessons at Maranatha Baptist Church, where Godwin is a deacon, brought up to 700 visitors here weekly. And Carter’s boyhood farm and old high school now operate as National Park Service museum sites.
“Even in death he’s looking after the town because he’s going to be buried right across from his house,” Godwin said.
That was a deliberate decision, which Godwin expects will lead to travelers continuing to visit the town.