Colfax couple attends church with Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter

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By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX  — Never in their wildest dreams did Colfax residents Michelle and Troy Knutson think they would ever attend a church service with the oldest living President of the United States.

But that’s exactly what happened on a recent trip to Florida when the Knutsons made it a point to travel to Plains, Georgia, to attend a church service at Maranatha Baptist Church where Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter are members.

“It still flabbergasts me that it even happened,” Troy said, when he stopped into the Colfax Messenger office to tell the story of the photograph he had posted on Facebook with the Carters.

Troy, as many readers of the Colfax Messenger may know, is an avid collector of Colfax history, and Michelle is a high school history teacher.

Initially, Troy and Michelle did not know it was even possible to attend church in Plains, Georgia, with Rosalyn and Jimmy Carter. Somewhere along the line, however, someone had told Troy that Jimmy Carter gave the children’s sermon and that the public was welcome to attend the church service.

“I started looking into it, and sure enough, it was true,” he said.

When Troy and Michelle planned to take a vacation, they knew they either wanted to go to New Mexico to see former Colfax resident Jean Olson, who at one time served as village president when she lived in Colfax and who also served on the Colfax Municipal Building Restoration Group, or they wanted to go to Florida to visit Troy’s brother.

They eventually decided to go to Florida to visit Troy’s brother in the Daytona area.

Since they were going to Florida, the Knutsons also wanted to visit St. Augustine, the oldest city in the United States. When Troy started looking more into St. Augustine, he realized Plains, Georgia, was only four hours from St. Augustine.

Troy got in contact with the church in Plains and was informed that approximately 600 people attended the services every other Sunday when Jimmy Carter gave the children’s sermon. Because so many people attended the church services, he was told they should be in the parking lot of the church at 4 a.m. Sunday morning to get a number so they would be able to be seated in the church.

Set-back

Just when the Knutsons thought that attending a service at Maranatha Baptist Church with Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter was a sure thing, Jimmy Carter fell, suffered bleeding in the brain and underwent surgery to relieve the pressure.

“I thought, oh boy, here we go. Jimmy is 95 and Rosalynn is 92,” Knutson said.

As many Messenger readers probably know, Jimmy Carter, who served as our 39th president from 1977 to 1981, has remained active in a variety of ways and continued to help build Habitat for Humanity houses until he was well into his 90s.

After Jimmy Carter had surgery in November, Troy continued monitoring the church’s Facebook page and e-mailing the church office.

“He was doing okay. He came out of the surgery all right. Then they started coming back to church. He wasn’t doing the children’s sermon anymore, but they still attend. We decided we were going to give it a chance,” Troy said.

The Knutsons traveled to Florida, and on the Thursday of their vacation, they visited with Troy’s brother.

On Friday, they went to St. Augustine.

And on Saturday, they started heading toward Plains.

Georgia

“Plains is a town of like 700, so there are no hotels. We had to stay to the east in Americus. We got up early Sunday morning. I had e-mailed earlier in the week, and they said the numbers had been low since Jimmy had not been giving the children’s sermon, so they said if we were there by 9:30, we should be good,” Troy said.

“Well, I don’t push anything. We were there by 7:30. There were two other cars in the parking lot,” he said.

A while after the Knutsons arrived at the church, three sheriff’s deputy patrol vehicles pulled into the church parking lot.

Troy thought it was indicative that the Carters would be attending church that day.

At nearly 9 a.m., a small maroon car pulled up with an elderly couple. They went into the church and came back out to a spot where there was a podium.

By then there were five or six cars in the parking lot, Troy said, and the woman told them she would be doing an orientation before the church service.

“She was born and raised in Plains, too, and she used to be a school teacher. George and Jan Williamson. She had Amy Carter as a student. When Jimmy was elected as president, they took Jan with them to Washington D.C. and she was the nanny for Amy at the White House. She told us what an experience that was,” Troy said.

“She’s kind of a feisty person. There’s no beating around the bush. She lays it on the line, but very sweet, though,” he said.

“She said for a while there, she and her husband would be to the church at 5 p.m. Saturday, and they wouldn’t even leave until 5, 6, 7 o’clock Sunday night by the time they got everything wrapped up,” Troy said.

“She was telling us stories, and pretty soon a black SUV pulled in, and another one, and she was over there making small talk. It’s a Southern Baptist church, so they hug and kiss everyone,” he said.

“They got parked, and she gathered all of us around to do an orientation and told us the protocol. There’s no hugging, no kissing on the head, no talking or starting a conversation, no touching. She said Jimmy would want to shake hands with everybody, because that’s how he is, but to please refrain. Walk with your hands behind your back. They’ve had issues in the past with ladies, especially those with fake nails. (The skin) on his hands is so brittle that he gets cut by their fingernails when they shake hands, then they have to deal with Bandaids and all that,” Troy said.

Secret Service

Before anyone is allowed in the church, they must be checked by the Secret Service agents assigned to Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter.

“The Secret Service came out, and they started patting us down. There were at least four of them, that we saw. There were probably more. They take you into the church. It’s not a very big church.  It’s just a country church. I don’t know how they ever fit 600 people in there. I would say it’s maybe twice the size of Colfax Lutheran. It really wasn’t that big. We were instructed to sit in the middle section, and the members sat on the side (sections). There were maybe only 50 or 60 people all together, members and guests, there for the service,” he said.

The children’s sermon is given before the actual church service starts, and Billy Carter’s daughter, Kim, Jimmy’s niece, does the children’s sermon now, Troy noted.

“We were all seated, and it was soon time for the children’s sermon, when in walked one Secret Service agent, and behind him, here came Jimmy Carter. And the pastor had just been talking about Jimmy Carter, and then all of a sudden, there he appeared in the door, and the pastor made a joke about it. He came in with his walker, just smiling ear to ear. It was an awe-filled moment. You are from here to the wall from him. There he is. So they got him to his pew. He sat in the front pew on the side row. He sits down, and someone brought him a glass of water. The pastor said something else, and then he mentioned Rosalynn Carter, and there she was at the door. He made a joke about how he could make people appear. She came in and stopped and waved and thanked everybody for coming. Then she sat down next to Jimmy,” Troy said.

“There is a Secret Service agent who stands on their side. One who stands at the back of the church. There’s one at the back door. And there’s one who sits directly behind them in the pew. They don’t participate in the songs or the offering. They are as straight-laced as could be,” he said.

“The Secret Service are just like you see in the movies, with the little ear pieces and everything. I can’t imagine what that job would be like with 600 people in the church,” Troy said.

 Birdseye view

“We were in the middle section, so we were about three rows back, kitty corner from Jimmy. Michelle had a direct view of them the entire time. She sobbed the entire service. She was beside herself,” Troy said.

“At the end, you are instructed to go from the middle, you go around the back and you come up. They set two chairs there. You have your camera ready, and you walk up there with your hands behind your back. Rosalynn said something to Michelle. Jimmy said, ‘Thanks for coming. Be sure to come back and see us again.’ We had our picture taken. They hand you your phone, and you go out the door. You are not allowed to watch anyone else get their picture taken. It’s in and out,” Troy said.

“We had already been inside the church and seated by the time (the Carters) showed up. There was a big white SUV that was parked close to the door that they must have come in,” he said.

“Up until about a year or so ago, they were both very active. The offering plates Jimmy made himself. They are all initialed on the bottom — JC. There was a big wooden cross at the front of the church that he had made. There were some wooden tables he made for the church. They would come out and rake the lawn and sweep the parking lot. They were normal members,” Troy said.

Museums

Plains, Georgia, the little town that had a population of 727 in the 2010 census, is full of museums.

The old high school that Jimmy Carter attended is now the Jimmy Carter Visitors’ Center.

Jimmy Carter’s childhood home is still there, and you can tour where he was born and raised.

The Carters live in Plains in a $161,000 house Jimmy built himself in 1961. The National Park Service owns the house now, and Jimmy and Rosalynn have the right to live there.

During her orientation, Williamson also talked about funeral plans for Jimmy Carter, Troy said.

Jimmy Carter will be buried in Plains. He does not want to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Jan Williamson said there will be three funerals: Arlington, Plains and Atlanta, he said, noting that the Carters have four children. Amy and two of the sons live in the Atlanta area, and one boy lives in Nevada.

Jimmy Carter ran his entire presidential campaign out of the old train depot in Plains. The old train depot is about the size of the office at the Colfax Messenger, Troy said.

“When he was elected president, the entire town pooled their money together and chartered a train with 18 passenger cars, and they took that to D.C. And afterwards, Jimmy invited them all to the White House, to the restricted second and third floor, and they had a gathering. It was all just unreal,” he said.

“To think, somebody coming from a town of 700 ended up being President of the United States,” Troy said.

“If anybody is heading down that way, I would highly encourage it. You don’t have to sign up ahead of time, and it doesn’t cost anything,” he said.

After their visit to Plains, the Knutsons headed back to Jacksonville, Florida, for the night, returned to Daytona on Monday and flew back to Wisconsin Monday night.

“Looking back now, we left Monday night at 8:45 or close to 9, I suppose. I’ve never been in a plane that’s above the clouds with a thunderstorm going on underneath you. I think that must have been the beginning stages of the tornados in Tennessee. We were right in that area. It was lit up like nothing else I’ve ever seen,” Troy said.

More than 20 people died when a series of tornados swept through Tennessee early Tuesday morning, March 3.