There are few places where a man can escape the weight of the presidency.
For Jimmy Carter, there was the modest ranch home that he built in 1961 on Woodland Drive in the small town of Plains, in southern Georgia. In a town where it seemed that every public building was a stop on a tour of his life, the house remained private.
It was here that Mr. Carter spent much of his post-presidency and the final years of his life, surrounded by a close-knit circle of support. Some came to know Mr. Carter because he was president, others simply because he was a neighbor or friend.
Collectively, they ended up as stewards both of a man in the twilight of life and of the political legacy of a world leader.
“You would do it for any friend, no matter what their position in life is or what their careers were,” said Andi Walker, a neighbor who once lived behind the Carter home and cooked Mr. Carter hundreds of meals over the last few years. “Knowing that he was the former leader of the free world — that wasn’t ever really in the back of my mind when I was doing the things I was doing. It was all about, these are my friends.”
