National Geographic photographer Jodi Cobb recounts her experience covering Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, in 1976.
In 1976, National Geographic photographer Jodi Cobb took a detour into the town of Plains , Georgia —and found a town giddy with the success of its hometown son. Jimmy Carter , not yet president, takes on the press in a baseball game during a break from the campaign trail in August 1976. The score is lost to history. In the summer of 1976 I was reluctantly paddling the Suwanee River for a National Geographic story, one of my first—and one I was uniquely unqualified for.
I was a journalist, not an adventurer, at heart. In the nearby Georgia town of Plains, Jimmy Carter was running his improbable presidential campaign. I had to go have a look. I found a place both charming and complicated, much like Carter himself. This tiny town had shaped the peanut farmer-turned-politician, and Plains was his touchstone throughout his life. I found the things that defined him—faith, humility, compassion—the things he in turn The international press crowds into Plains during the transition between Carter’s victory in the election and the inauguration. I found a tight-knit press corps with all the big names: Barbara Walters, Tom Brokaw, Jane Pauley, Walter Cronkite. It was a down-to-earth campaign that welcomed me in. Jimmy’s sister Gloria said her husband loved National Geographic so much he wanted to be buried with it in his hands. His outrageous brother Billy, who ran the local gas station and created his own beer brand, introduced me to Carter as a photographer from Hustler magazine. Jimmy’s mother, the irrepressible Miss Lillian, told me that I really needed to do something about my hair, although the men probably found it sexy. This was a campaign I definitely wanted to cover. I went back to Washington and proposed a story on Plains. Miss Lillian, Carter’s mother, at the Plains Depot where she would sit in her rocker and greet visitors and sign autographs. 10,000 visitors a day would pass through during the height of the transitio
Jimmy Carter Presidential Campaign Plains Georgia 1976 Election Small Town America
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