The Jimmy Carter National Historic Site (NHS) hosted a Mother’s Celebration Saturday when former President Jimmy Carter paid tribute to his late mother, “Miss” Lillian Carter. He will signed his new book, “A Remarkable Mother,” at the Plains High School Museum.

Carter said his mother, who died in 1983, was a lifelong civil and human rights activist. He said his mother, who was born in Richland, grew up in a time when racism was the norm in America, but a person’s color wasn’t a factor to her.

Lillian Carter moved to Plains as a young woman to study nursing at the Wise Sanitarium where she started her family with her husband.

President Carter remembers growing up in the Archery community. The Carters family was the only white family in that neighborhood. This situation made the Carters realize the plight of the American Negro, he said.

As a child, President Carter, used to stay with a black family, the Clarks, when his parents went out of town. Lillian Carter campaigned diligently for her son when he ran for U.S. President.

Lillian Carter joined the Peace Corps at the age of 67, serving in Southern India. President Carter said his mother lived an eventful and exciting life, even until her final years.