section_path: Early life
section_name: Early life
paragraph_text: Early life
  
  James Earl Carter Jr. was born on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, at the Wise Sanitarium, where his mother worked as a registered nurse. Carter was the first U.S. president born in a hospital. He was the eldest child of Bessie Lillian Gordy and James Earl Carter Sr., and a descendant of English immigrant Thomas Carter, who settled in the Colony of Virginia in 1635. In Georgia, numerous generations of Carters worked as cotton farmers. Carter's father was a successful local businessman who ran a general store and was an investor in farmland; he had served as a reserve second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps during World War I.
  
  During Carter's infancy, his family moved several times, settling on a dirt road in nearby Archery, which was almost entirely populated by impoverished Black families. His family eventually had three more children, Gloria, Ruth, and Billy. Carter had a good relationship with his parents, even though his mother was often absent during his childhood since she worked long hours. Although his father was staunchly pro-segregation, he allowed Jimmy to befriend the Black farmhands' children. Carter was an enterprising teenager who was given his own acre of Earl's farmland, where he grew and sold peanuts. Carter also rented out a section of tenant housing he had purchased.
  
  James Earl Carter Jr. was born on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, at the Wise Sanitarium, where his mother worked as a registered nurse. Carter was the first U.S. president born in a hospital. He was the eldest child of Bessie Lillian Gordy and James Earl Carter Sr., and a descendant of English immigrant Thomas Carter, who settled in the Colony of Virginia in 1635. In Georgia, numerous generations of Carters worked as cotton farmers. Carter's father was a successful local businessman who ran a general store and was an investor in farmland; he had served as a reserve second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps during World War I.
  
  During Carter's infancy, his family moved several times, settling on a dirt road in nearby Archery, which was almost entirely populated by impoverished Black families. His family eventually had three more children, Gloria, Ruth, and Billy. Carter had a good relationship with his parents, even though his mother was often absent during his childhood since she worked long hours. Although his father was staunchly pro-segregation, he allowed Jimmy to befriend the Black farmhands' children. Carter was an enterprising teenager who was given his own acre of Earl's farmland, where he grew and sold peanuts. Carter also rented out a section of tenant housing he had purchased.