Jimmy Carter Gets 14 Stitches After Fall

95-year-old still made it to a Habitat for Humanity event
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 7, 2019 12:27 AM CDT
Jimmy Carter Has Black Eye, Stitches After Fall at Home
Former President Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter speak during the Habitat for Humanity Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project opening ceremony at the Ryman Auditorium, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2019, in Nashville, Tenn.   (Courtney Pedroza/The Tennessean via AP)

Former President Jimmy Carter had a black eye and 14 stitches after falling Sunday at his Georgia home, but made it to an evening concert in Tennessee to rally volunteers ahead of his 36th home building project for Habitat for Humanity. The 39th president fell earlier in the day at his home in Plains, Georgia, and required the stitches above his brow. By Sunday evening, Carter was on stage at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville with his wife, Rosalynn, 92, to talk to volunteers and supporters of the building project, the AP reports. Carter turned 95 last Tuesday, becoming the first US president to reach that milestone. He told the crowd Sunday evening that he had to go to the hospital and get 14 stitches, "but I had a No. 1 priority and that was to come to Nashville and build houses."

Carter wore an Atlanta Braves baseball cap, but his left eye was swollen and bruised and he had a white bandage above his eye. The Carters were introduced by country stars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, who called the Carters the hardest working volunteers, and sang some duets during the concert and ceremony. Rosalynn Carter praised the country music couple for volunteering at previous Habitat for Humanity building projects, saying she once saw Yearwood way up in the rafters of a home working hard during construction. Former President Carter then joked, "While Garth just watched her," drawing laughs from the crowd and from Yearwood. (Carter recently said he couldn't have been president at 80 and he hopes "there's an age limit.")

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