NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — People across Tennessee continue to feel former President Jimmy Carter’s impact on the Volunteer State.
Before President Carter and his wife Rosalynn came to Nashville in 2019 to build homes with Habitat for Humanity, Tara Morgan remembers struggling to find a place to live.
“I just remembered being so discouraged…I was like, ‘Why isn’t it possible for me to find a two-bedroom that I can afford for me and my daughter?’” Morgan recalled.
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Now, she and 20 other Nashville families are homeowners thanks to the Carter Project and Habitat for Humanity.
“This is a game changer. This home changed my life,” she said.
Morgan remembered meeting the former President and First Lady at Ryman Auditorium during the project five years ago. She described Carter as humble and a prime example of what it means to be a servant leader.
“He was 94 when he came to help build my house, so that in itself is inspiring and I hope that everybody–even though he’s gone–that everybody can still be inspired by him because I know that I am,” she said.
Former U.S. attorney Hal Hardin, who was appointed by President Carter, said Carter was “quite a fella,” someone who could be a hero; and describes him as brilliant, loyal, and hardworking.
“You can’t be a perfect president. We’re human beings, but he was pretty darn close in my opinion,” Hardin told News 2.
Hardin remembered one interaction with Carter in particular, which inspired the book Coup where Hardin had to make the difficult decision of ousting a governor during a pardons-for-sale scandal.
“I said, ‘I always wondered why you didn’t fire me for doing that’ and he said, ‘Well I had a little problem going on in the Middle East and that problem was a little bit bigger than what you had with this Governor,” Hardin remembered.
Hardin told News 2 that President Carter later sent him a letter commending Hardin for ‘doing the right thing’ after reading the book. Hardin keeps several handwritten notes, memorabilia, and photos with the former President and First Lady hanging on his wall.
He said he thinks of Carter as someone future generations can emulate and admire.
