Friday, February 7, 2025

“Plainspoken:” Azle native speaks about friendship with Jimmy Carter

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Jimmy Carter was many things: America’s 39th president, its most famous centenarian, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and for one Azle native, a good friend. In a phone call with the Tri-County Reporter, singer-songwriter, author and now documentarian Andrew Greer reflected on his life and his relationship with the former president.

Greer’s family lived in Azle when he was born in 1982; he grew up and attended school in the city. His father was executive director of the Azle Pastoral Counseling Center, and his mother is the organist at Ash Creek Baptist Church. After graduating from Azle High School in 2000, Greer pursued his dreams of being a professional musician by attending Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. He went on to be an eight-time Dove Award nominee, author and now documentarian.

It was in the latter role that Greer wound up making an unlikely friend in former President Jimmy Carter. Greer first met Carter while visiting him in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, for filming and interviews for the Georgia Public Broadcasting produced documentary, “Plainspoken,” which dives into the topic of race relations in the small town of 700. Greer created, wrote and directed the documentary.

Even though Greer was born in the Reagan era, after the Carters had left the White House, he developed a fascination with the peanut farmer president after reading his book “An Hour Before Daylight” while in college. He said Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter soon became heroes in his mind and he endeavored to learn more about them.

Greer visited Plains and Carter’s Sunday school class at Maranatha Baptist Church as a tourist in 2007. He returned for filming in 2019 and really got to know the Carters and the community. When principal filming was finished, a thought remained in his mind, “How am I going to see my friends again?” When the opportunity to buy a small house in the area came up, he followed his heart and listened to the encouragement of friends and family, buying the property with plans to make Plains his new home. Greer began attending Maranatha Baptist Church where he started playing the piano and further integrating himself into the humble small town. He became a close friend to the Carter family, co-writing and performing songs for Rosalynn Carter’s 95th birthday and Jimmy Carter’s 100th.

Life in Plains reminded Greer of his childhood, growing up in Azle. His hometown remains not only a part of his history, but also his ongoing story and it is woven into the fabric of who he is today. After living in Nashville and traveling the world, Greer felt drawn to the authenticity and intimacy of small-town life.

“There was this compartment or a space in my heart that was named Plains, and I just didn't know it until I met (Carter),” Greer said. “It's a little bit mystical how we relate to one another and how we gravitate toward certain people and places … In Plains, I have found my soul can be at rest to some degree, in a way that reminds me of growing up in Azle, growing up in a community where we can know our neighbors because of the size of it, where we can know each other’s needs and help meet each other's needs, walk with each other through life's various circumstances, good and bad. That's what I crave.”

For former President Carter, Greer said the end of the line wasn’t becoming the most powerful person in the world. His goal was to lift others high, by bending down low. Through his experiences, he would come to learn that Carter was an extraordinary yet ordinary man. He was neighborly, humble and not afraid of failure. In one of his last formal interviews, Carter told Greer that one of his final wishes was for the world to adopt the teachings of Jesus as an example of how to live, and that people would treat each other with equality, respect and honor others the way we would want to be honored.

“It was just everyday experiences, their unsung activities in town, visiting people, rich, poor, Black, white, doesn't matter, who truly were their neighbors and their friends,” Greer said. “Whether they were sick in the hospital, whether they needed food, whether they just needed company, whether the grass needed mowing at the church, I mean, there was nothing that they exempted themselves from. They were truly full-bodied human beings, which I love, and also people with their own peculiar preferences … They’re just folksy people who didn't delineate from others, or distance from others or keep themselves above anyone else. So, there's a lot to learn in that. I think humility is really difficult to come by in modern day America, and I think that's as much true for me as anybody else.”

Greer said even a nearly 60-year difference in their ages did not deter the Carters from seeking out his friendship and that the former president held a genuine open-mindedness, desire to learn and respect for everyone that others ought to learn from.

“I do think when a pillar of peace, when an example of service and humility passes away from this life, like President Carter, that is a challenge or a call to action for the rest of us to pick up the baton,” Greer said. “There's now a space to run with it and fill up that space and even expand that space to serve more people and to submit ourselves to the service of an even greater circle of people, starting with our neighbor next door.”

In his life and travels, Greer said one of the lessons he’s learned is the impact that anyone can have on others even after they’re gone. Ultimately, former President Jimmy Carter occupies the same level of importance as his influential high school teacher and friend, the late Jan Johnson, for example.

“They all hold the same space in my heart,” Greer said. “I was deeply moved by how much I will miss her, which is linked to how much she impacted me. So that is the beauty of coming from a place like Azle is, and I would say President Carter would say that's the beauty of coming from a place like Plains is — that we stay connected for life, and those connections provide the foundation to do the things that we do around the world.”

After Jimmy Carter’s passing, Greer sang in the choir at Carter’s second private funeral service at Maranatha Baptist Church. “Plainspoken” features one of Carter’s last interviews and came out this past fall on PBS. He’s also currently working on a book for Mercer University Press about President Carter's Sunday school lessons that'll come out at the end of this year.