All About Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter's Children and Grandchildren

Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter built a huge family, and they wouldn't have had it any other way.

The former president and first lady share sons John William "Jack," James Earl "Chip," Donnel Jeffrey "Jeff" and daughter Amy Carter. Between their four adult children, they have 22 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Speaking on The Lead with Jake Tapper in 2015, Jimmy said that the key to his decades-long marriage was simply embracing time with their family.

"We have a big family now. We have 22 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, 38 of us in all," he said. "So, we try to hold our family together and just enjoy the family life."

Jimmy became the longest-living president when he turned 98 in October 2022, and his grandchildren have ensured that his legacy will live on. His grandson Jason Carter, who serves on The Carter Center board of trustees, told PEOPLE: "It's been awe-inspiring to watch my grandfather live out his values for all these decades. My earliest memories are from his years in the White House, and I've grown up witnessing and learning from his faith and his belief in equal treatment and respect for all people."

In February 2023, the Carter Center announced that following "a series of short hospital stays," Jimmy would be moved to hospice care. Just a few months later, the family announced Rosalynn's dementia diagnosis, and she entered hospice care in November 2023. On Nov. 19, Rosalynn died surrounded by family at her Plains, Georgia home. She was 96.

The Carter family attended Rosalynn's memorial service in Atlanta on Nov. 28, 2023. During the ceremony, Jack, Chip, Jeff and Amy sweetly consoled their grieving father.

Jimmy set another milestone on Oct. 1, 2024, when he became the first president to live to 100 years old over 19 months after entering hospice care.

Here's everything to know about Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter's children and grandchildren.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter's Children

John William "Jack" Carter, 77

John William "Jack" Carter is Jimmy and Rosalynn's eldest child, born in Portsmouth, Virginia, on July 3, 1947, while Jimmy was serving in the Navy. In his youth, Jack was raised in Plains, Georgia, and worked in the family's peanut farm warehouse before going to college. He attended the Georgia Institute of Technology, then Emory University, followed by Georgia Southwestern University. He then joined the Navy, from which he was discharged for smoking marijuana in 1976, the Telegraph reported.

In 1971, Jack married Juliette "Judy" Langford, with whom he welcomed son Jason James, born Aug. 7, 1975, and daughter Sarah Rosemary, born on Dec. 19, 1978.

After being discharged from the Navy, Jack went back to Georgia Tech, where he graduated with a degree in nuclear physics, per the Jimmy Carter Library. He then enrolled at the University of Georgia, where he got a law degree. He began practicing law with Langford's father, Georgia state Sen. James Beverly Langford, before working on his father's 1976 presidential campaign efforts.

Jack and Langford resided in Calhoun, Georgia, until 1981, when their family moved to Chicago. There, he worked for Citibank as well as the Chicago Board of Trade.

He and Langford eventually divorced, and he married his second wife, Elizabeth Brasfield, on May 15, 1992. He is the stepfather to her children, John Chuldenko and Sarah Reynolds. The family moved to Las Vegas in 2003.

In August 2006, Jack won the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Nevada, NBC News reported, but he later lost the general election to incumbent Republican Sen. John Ensign, who would resign from the role in 2011.

James Earl "Chip" Carter III, 74

James Earl "Chip" Carter III is Jimmy and Rosalynn's second son, born April 12, 1950, in Honolulu. At the time, Jimmy was stationed in the Hawaiian capital during his Navy service. After being educated in local public schools, Chip worked in the family peanut warehouse before being elected to the Plains city council and working on the Democratic National Committee, he told the University of Georgia in 2008. In 2000, he became the president of the Friendship Force, an international exchange program that his parents co-founded.

In the documentary Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President, Jimmy revealed that singer Willie Nelson and Chip had smoked pot on the White House roof. In 2015, Chip told GQ that Nelson told him to keep it a secret.

"When Willie Nelson wrote his autobiography, he confessed that he smoked pot in the White House one night when he was spending the night with me," Jimmy recalled in the documentary. "And he says that his companion that shared the pot with him was one of the servants in the White House. That is not exactly true — it actually was one of my sons, which he didn't want to categorize as a pot-smoker like him."

Chip married Caron Griffin on June 23, 1973, after meeting her three years earlier during his father's campaign for governor in Georgia. They share a son named James Earl Carter IV, born on Feb. 25, 1977. Chip moved out of the White House in August 1977, the Washington Post reported, amid a rumored separation from Caron. He and Caron finalized their divorce in 1980, per the Post.

He later married Ginger Hodges, with whom he welcomed daughter Margaret Alicia Carter on Sept. 23, 1987. Chip and Hodges also divorced; in 2001, he married his third wife, Becky Payne, with whom he lives in Decatur, Georgia.

Donnel Jeffrey "Jeff" Carter, 72

The Carters' third son, Donnel Jeffrey "Jeff" Carter, was born on Aug. 18, 1952, in New London, Connecticut.

Jeff met his wife Annette Davis on their first day of college at Georgia Southwestern University; they married four years later on April 6, 1975. In 1978, Jeff graduated with honors from George Washington University, where he studied geography and specialized in computer cartography, per TIME magazine. He and his former professor co-founded their company Computer Mapping Consultants that same year.

Before the Carter presidency ended, Jeff and Annette moved out of the White House to raise their three sons, Joshua Jeffrey (born in 1984), Jeremy Davis (born in 1987) and James Carlton (born in 1991). Annette died on Sept. 19, 2021, at age 68.

In October 2024, Joshua told PEOPLE that Jeff had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and had been using deep brain stimulation therapy to manage his symptoms.

"My dad is currently living by himself, he's able to take care of himself, he's independent, but he built his house knowing that one day he's going to need more help," Joshua said.

He added, "He's not very open about it because he doesn't want to be the face of anything. It's just, Parkinson's sucks. It's a hard disease. It's a hard diagnosis."

Amy Lynn Carter, 57

Jimmy and Rosalynn's youngest child and only daughter, Amy Lynn Carter, was born on Oct. 19, 1967, in Plains. She spent most of her formative years in the White House during her father's administration.

As a child, Amy had a nanny named Mary Prince, who was part of the prisoner trusty system in Georgia. (The trusty system was a U.S. prison program that granted certain privileges to designated inmates.) Prince was wrongly convicted of murder and later pardoned. She went on to babysit for the Carters' grandchildren.

Amy garnered worldwide attention at just 9 years old when she read books during a state dinner hosting Canada's Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (father of Justin Trudeau), reported the Washington Post.

When President Carter's term ended, Amy moved to Atlanta. In summer 1982, she served as a Senate page in Washington, D.C. She graduated from the Woodward Academy and later enrolled at Brown University but was dismissed for poor academic performance in July 1987, according to the Washington Post. Amy went on to get her bachelor's degree from the Memphis College of Art in 1991 and her master's in art history from Tulane University in 1996.

Amy was politically active from a young age, participating in numerous protests, including ones against U.S. foreign policy in Central America and apartheid in South Africa. In 1986, Amy and several others were arrested for protesting CIA recruitment at the University of Massachusetts Amherst; the New York Times later reported that Amy and 14 other protesters were acquitted of charges of disorderly conduct and trespassing.

In 1995, Amy illustrated her father's children's book, The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer. A year later, she married James Gregory Wentzel, a computer consultant with whom she shares son Hugo James Wentzel, born in July 1999.

Amy later went through a divorce, and remarried John Joseph "Jay" Kelly in 2007. They have one son together.

As of 2020, she was a member of the Carter Center's board of councilors.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter's Grandchildren

Jason James Carter, 49

Born Aug. 7, 1975, in Decatur, Jason James Carter is the son of Jack Carter and Judy Langford. Jason graduated from Duke University with degrees in philosophy and political science, according to Atlanta magazine. He served in the Peace Corps in South Africa, where he kept a journal that became the book Power Lines: Two Years on South Africa's Borders. He then completed his law degree at the University of Georgia.

In 2005, Jason became a partner at Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore, where he's since worked on high-profile voting rights cases and represented the National Football League Players Association.

Jason followed his grandfather Jimmy and his father Jack's footsteps into politics. In a May 2010 special election, Jason was elected to the Georgia Senate, ABC News reported, and he served as a state senator until 2015. During his tenure, he supported a controversial bill called the Safe Carry Protection Act, which permitted licensed gun owners to bring firearms in public and private places, including schools, churches and bars, CNN reported.

In 2014, Jason ran for governor of Georgia. Politico reported that he lost to incumbent Gov. Nathan Deal by 7.9%.

Jason is married to a teacher and former journalist named Katharine, with whom he shares sons Henry Lewis, born Sept. 2, 2006, and Thomas Clyde, born Dec. 22, 2008.

James Earl Carter IV, 47

James Earl Carter IV was born on Feb. 25, 1977, to Chip and Caron Carter. He also followed in his family's footsteps into politics but has neither run for nor held public office himself. Instead, he works as an opposition researcher and describes himself as a "policy wonk" in his Twitter bio.

His research was highly publicized in the 2012 presidential election between then-incumbent President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney. James was behind the leak of a viral video of Romney at a fundraiser telling the crowd that 47% of Americans "believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it," among other baseless assertions. James was credited as a research assistant on the story. "I've been searching for clips on Republicans for a long time, almost every day," he told New York Magazine. "I just do it for fun."

James studied at Georgia State University, where he earned a degree in public budgeting and finance, according to Netroots Nation. After publishing the 47% video, he founded his own Atlanta-based research firm specializing in politics. He's also worked for Better Georgia and for Media Matters for America.

In February 2023, James and his wife, Sally Carter, visited his grandparents at their home in Georgia. This came shortly after it was announced that Jimmy would be moved into hospice care. The visit was anything but ordinary as the couple came prepared to show off their juggling skills.

"We are all juggling a lot lately. But yesterday my wife and I got to juggle for my grandparents. They loved it," James captioned a video on Twitter.

Sarah Rosemary Carter, 45

Sarah Rosemary Carter, daughter of Jack Carter and Judy Langford, was born on Dec. 19, 1978.

Little is publicly known about Sarah's life, save for her childhood appearances with her grandparents and her impressive academic record. Her handprints are in stone as part of the White House Children's Garden.

She received her bachelor's degree from Duke University in 2000 and received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of California, San Francisco in 2007. Sarah married Brendan Keith Murphy, with whom she has a daughter, Josephine Beverly, born on Dec. 29, 2009.

Joshua Jeffrey Carter, 40

Joshua Jeffrey "Josh" Carter, the eldest son of Jeff and Annette Carter, was born in Fairfax, Virginia, on May 8, 1984. He graduated from Georgia Tech, per his blog. He is the host of the Unchanging Principles podcast, which he named after a line his grandfather often quoted from his own high school teacher: "We must adjust to changing times and still hold true to unchanging principles."

"When I saw the events in, you know, 2016 and 2020, I felt like a lot of the things that I kind of held as 'givens' for the United States were being attacked, were being minimized. You know, I saw in particular democracy in decline, the rise for strongmen," he told Georgia Public Broadcasting in 2022. "And it's not just United States, but all across the world. But when I look at what's happening in United States elections being challenged. And just, you know, gaslighting and just a government that wasn't serving its people and didn't seem interested in serving those people. That's what kind of spurred me to take the lessons that I had learned from my grandfather and put it out there in a podcast to let people know, 'Okay, these are the core beliefs that were passed to me from my grandfather.' "

Josh developed a love of woodworking from his grandfather and said he was, so far, the only Carter grandchild to share the hobby with the former POTUS.

"When I was growing up, the Carter Center had an annual fundraiser every year in February, and it was a ski trip," he recalled. "And every year at the fundraiser, he would auction off a piece of furniture that he made. So every year when I was at his house for Christmas, I would always go into the shop from when I was eight until like well through college. I would work on the projects that he was working on. I think I worked on every single piece that he made for the auction."

Josh is married to Sarah Carter, who was his first girlfriend at age 11. They have two sons: Charles and Jonathan.

Jeremy Davis Carter

Jeremy Davis Carter was the son of Jeff Carter and Annette Carter, born June 25, 1987. After graduating from McIntosh High School in Peachtree City, Georgia, he enrolled at West Georgia University in 2005, according to The Citizen. Jeremy stayed mostly out of the spotlight until his young life was cut short at age 28. He died suddenly from a heart attack in front of his mother on Dec. 20, 2015.

Jimmy announced his grandson's death the next morning during his Sunday school sermon. The former president shared that Jeremy was home and had lay down for a nap. When Annette came to check on him later, she found that his heart had stopped beating. Annette performed CPR until paramedics arrived, and Jeremy was rushed to the emergency room, where his heart stopped again. Doctors performed CPR for more than 10 minutes, but noted that Jeremy would likely have severe brain damage if he survived beyond that point; the family told them to stop. His brother Josh wrote in an emotional blog post that Jeremy had recently undergone a series of medical tests after he began experiencing achy legs and poor appetite; his doctors had not found any issues with his heart.

At Sunday school, Jimmy told the class that Jeremy was "a very special child" and "a wonderful young man whom we loved very much."

Margaret Alicia Carter, 37

Margaret Alicia Carter was born Sept. 23, 1987, in Atlanta, to Chip Carter and his second wife, Ginger Hodges. She married Harold Edward Carter and they had a daughter named Alicia Carter, born Sept. 19, 2009.

James "Jamie" Carlton Carter, 33

Born April 24, 1991, in Georgia, James "Jamie" Carlton Carter is the youngest child of Jeff and Annette Carter. Jamie and his future wife, Anna, began dating in 2017, and welcomed their daughter, Rayna Rose, on March 20, 2019. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the couple eloped on Oct. 22, 2021, and held a formal ceremony, officiated by the groom's brother Josh, exactly one year later, per their wedding site.

Hugo James Wentzel, 25

Amy Lynn Carter and James Gregory Wentzel welcomed their son, Hugo James, on July 29, 1999. The family has kept a low profile, but Hugo was on hand to celebrate grandfather Jimmy's 85th birthday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, according to the Boston Globe. He also attended a picnic event hosted by The Elders, a global leadership organization, with his father and his uncle Jeremy in Istanbul on Oct. 31, 2009, to raise awareness for climate change.

In 2023, Hugo appeared on the ABC reality series Claim to Fame. After being eliminated (his fellow contestants successfully discovered that he was Jimmy Carter's grandson), he spoke about his relationship with the former president.

“I have had a great life with him,” Hugo told PEOPLE. "He's been an amazing grandpa. He's an amazing person. I absolutely love him. Growing up, he's been a great influence."

Sarah Chuldenko, 46

Sarah Chuldenko Reynolds was born in 1978 to Elizabeth Brasfield. Jimmy's son Jack Carter later married Elizabeth, making Jack her stepfather and Jimmy her step-grandfather.

According to her website, Sarah was originally born in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and spent more than 10 years in New York City before relocating to Los Angeles, where she currently lives.

Sarah is a professional painter who received her MFA in painting from the New York Academy of Art in N.Y.C. and her BFA in painting from the Cleveland Institute of Art in Cleveland, Ohio. Her work has been featured in exhibitions across the country and she previously worked with contemporary artist Jeff Koons. She also teamed up with her grandfather Jimmy to illustrate a volume of his poetry, titled Always a Reckoning and Other Poems.

In 2006, Sarah married fellow artist Stephen Reynolds, with whom she shares two daughters.

John Chuldenko

Born to Elizabeth Brasfield, John Chuldenko is the stepson of Jack Carter.

Like his sister Sarah, John also graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art with a major in graphic design. According to his alumni profile, he decided to pursue a career in filmmaking after he was encouraged by a faculty member at the school. John went on to become a writer and director, releasing his first feature film, Nesting, in 2012.

He's also currently working on a project a bit closer to home — updating the White House's secret collection of music records. As John told NPR, he first learned of the official record collection during a family vacation. After reaching out to the White House (and getting permission from then-first lady Michelle Obama), John visited the famous home's screening room in 2010 to give the collection a listen himself.

"We walk in and they're all in these cardboard boxes," he described to NPR. "And it's like, whoa. Here I am in the White House, downstairs in the movie theater, digging through these records that are embossed in presidential seal binders. It is the coolest thing ever for a record collector. It is the most exclusive record library in the world, probably."

John spent the following years researching and learning more about the collection, which, as of May 2022, he was working to update with the help of the Recording Industry Association of America. According to his website, John currently lives in Los Angeles with his two daughters.