President Joe Biden declared January 9, 2025 as Jimmy Carter Day, a National Day of Mourning for the late thirty-ninth U.S. President.
Jimmy Carter took the oath of office as the nation’s Thirty-ninth President at two minutes past noon on January 20, 1977. The temperature was in the upper 20s, the sky clear with a 15 mile-per-hour wind in Washington, D.C. that sunny Thursday morning. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger administered the oath set out in the Constitution to the former governor of Georgia. “Congratulations,” he said as a 21-gun salute boomed from Army cannon on the Capital grounds. The new President stood solemn at first, then with a momentary smile on his lips as the strains of “Hail to the Chief” sounded in salute.
Carter pledged “a new day, a new beginning, a new spirit for America.” He continued, “If I can stay close to the people of this country and not disappoint them, I think I have a chance to be a great president.” True to his promise to make this a “People’s Inaugural,” Carter braved the subfreezing temperatures and walked the 1.2 miles from his inauguration at the Capitol to the front of the White House hand-in-hand with his wife, now First Lady, Rosalynn.
The Carters walked briskly, smiling and waving to the cheers of an estimated 300,000 spectators lining the 16-block route. The walk thrilled the multitude, some of whom had been standing for six hours waiting for a glimpse of the new President. Lisa Stagg, a seventeen-year-old junior at Park City High School dressed in colorful winter garb, stood in the crowd with a movie camera in hand to see and record President Carter as he walked by.
President Jimmy Carter’s staff sent out 400,000 invitations to the presidential swearing-in and parade in Washington, D. C. Lisa was the only person from Park City to receive one of President Carter’s invitations. “Honestly, I don’t really know why I was chosen,” she told a newspaper reporter, “I wrote a lot of letters and visited the Carter campaign headquarters in Salt Lake, but so did other kids.”
Credit: Park Record photograph, from Utah Digital Newspapers.
The invitation came as the result of an assignment to prepare a term report for her United States History class. Lisa’s history teacher had read about the Nader Project in Parade Magazine. Political activist Ralph Nader planned to launch a nation-wide endeavor calling for students to profile their congressmen and senators. Because 1976 was an election year, the history students were given the opportunity to report on congressional candidates from both parties and the presidential contenders. Lisa chose to report on Governor Carter’s campaign for the presidency.
The students gathered information on the Carter-Ford contest for president, the Hatch-Moss senate campaign, and the Marriott-Howe race for the House of Representatives. A field trip to each of the candidates’ campaign headquarters and an extensive letter writing operation produced a treasure trove of position papers, brochures, bumper-stickers, and buttons.
Lisa wrote Mr. Carter a personal letter, “I just used a lot of big words and signed it sincerely me,” she said when asked about the contents of that letter. The invitation came as a result of her diligent dedication to her project and school work and was a fine reward for a hard working student. Every civic organization in Park City realized the importance of Park City being represented at the inauguration and stepped forward to make sure that Lisa got to Washington.
The Museum extends our condolences to the Carter family. If you want to learn more about President Jimmy Carter, head to the Carter Presidential Library website (or go in person).