(Plains, GA) - Indiana has a connection with the late president Jimmy Carter that still exists today. A 13 foot tall statue of a peanut with a huge smile depicting the signature grin of the 39th president was ordered by the Indiana Democratic Party in 1976.
Carter, a Democrat, was a peanut farmer in addition to being a U.S. Navy veteran and a former Governor of Georgia prior to entering the White House.
The statue, requested during Carter’s successful presidential campaign, stands along a roadside near his hometown of Plains, Georgia.
“There was a nice tie between Indiana Democrats and Jimmy Carter,” said La Porte attorney Shaw Friedman.
Friedman followed politics closely back then as a teenager and later went on to become the La Porte County Democratic Party Chairman. He said his late father, “Sandy,” was also active in politics during that time period and wouldn’t be surprised if he had contributed financially to the construction of the peanut. Friedman said his father later visited Carter at the White House.
The monument is reportedly made with wooden hoops, chicken wire, aluminum foil and polyurethane and sits close to the church where Carter taught Sunday school.
Carter died on December 29 at the age of 100.
