Carrie Oldham, Lakeland’s first Black female mayor, considered former President Jimmy Carter a man of “high integrity,” who had the “utmost moral character.” It’s the reason she invited him to Lakeland in the final sprint of his 1980 reelection campaign.
She had attended a dinner at the White House and convinced his staff to schedule the visit. The city only had a few days to prepare.
Former President Jimmy Carter passed away at his home in Plains, Georgia, at 3:45 p.m. Sunday at the age of 100. He terminated medical intervention and entered hospice care in February 2023. His wife Rosalynn Carter died in November 2023 at the age of 96.
A memorable campaign stop
Oldham was at what is now Lakeland Linder International Airport to greet President Carter on Halloween that year, and was thrilled he chose to make the visit.
“It was a moment in my life that I’ll never forget. A great experience that I’ll always cherish,” Oldham, a retired school district administrator, said in a phone interview.
Mayor caught in traffic, missed president’s speech: However, caught in traffic after presenting Carter the key to the city, Oldham was unable to get to the Lakeland Civic Center (now the RP Funding Center) to hear his short speech outside the venue. Not even her police escort could get through the crowded streets that day.
Oldham, who taught political science, was a Lakeland commissioner for nine years. She said Carter is the only president she’s met in person.
A Nobel-worthy second act: Carter, the 39th president of the U.S., was a former Georgia peanut farmer and a Democrat who had served as a Georgia state senator and governor.
A man of deep faith, he opposed racial segregation and supported the Civil Rights Movement. He’s known for pardoning Vietnam War draft evaders and establishing the Department of Education. But the end of his presidency was clouded by the Iran hostage crisis and the 1979 energy crisis.
After leaving the White House, he created The Carter Center in Atlanta to promote social justice and human rights, earning him a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He traveled the world promoting fair elections. He also was a key supporter of Habitat for Humanity, volunteering with them for over 39 years.
Two and a half hours in Lakeland
According to the official diary of his presidency, Carter gave several speeches early in the morning of Oct. 31, 1980, in Columbia, South Carolina, before flying to the airport in Lakeland. He arrived at 11:03 a.m.
After meeting with Oldham, he arrived at the Lakeland Civic Center at 11:48, where he was greeted by the Civic Center director, Jerry McDonald, and assistant director Donna Bollinger (later Donna Dowless).
From 11:52 a.m. to 12:29 p.m., he participated in a campaign rally. He was introduced to the crowd by the late Lawton Chiles, a Lakeland native and Democrat who was then serving as a U.S. senator and went on to become Florida governor.
Carter spoke to the crowd for 22 minutes, according to the diary. He then returned to his motorcade to ride back to the airport at 12:45 p.m. After speaking with his wife on the telephone, he boarded Air Force One at 1:38 p.m. and headed to Memphis for another campaign stop.
Local officer foiled possible assassination plot
The late Edgar Pickett Jr, one of Lakeland’s first Black police officers, remembered the day fondly, even at 94 years of age. He was the department’s fingerprinting expert at the time of the visit and is credited with helping to identify a man who threatened to assassinate President Carter.
According to Pickett’s recollection, officers were made aware of a man named Franklin who had escaped from jail and had been following the president. Pickett said officers had a description and arrested the man at a blood plasma donation site, but he denied being the suspect.
Pickett took his fingerprints and contacted the FBI. In the days before computers or even fax machines, Pickett and an FBI agent discussed the unique features Franklin’s prints contained and Pickett realized they had their man. Confronted with the evidence, the man finally admitted his connection, Pickett said.
“It made me feel good because I was the only officer that could do it. I was a young Black guy and they put that much trust in me that I’d come up with the correct name,” he said.
A seat of honor and personal thanks: Pickett said he attended Carter’s speech, sitting 10 feet from him. He said he shook the president’s hand and introduced him to his family.
“It was nice. I enjoyed it … He was a nice man, a laid-back man,” he recalled. Pickett said he rode in the motorcade, following the president to the airport, and watched him board Air Force One.
“I was shocked he came to Lakeland. I was very sad he didn’t win. He had his heart in it,” Pickett Jr. said. Carter lost his re-election bid in a landslide to Ronald Reagan four days after the Lakeland visit.
Lakeland’s first presidential visit: Carter was the first sitting president to visit Lakeland, columnist Cinnamon Bair wrote in The Ledger in 2010. “The only other time a sitting president had visited any part of Polk County (before then) had been in 1929 when Calvin Coolidge dedicated Bok Tower in Lake Wales,” she wrote.
Carter returned to Polk County after his presidency to fish in reclaimed phosphate mines south of Mulberry.
Grady Judd’s recollection: Security was provided on that day in the early 1980s by Grady Judd, then a lieutenant with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
“He really was a southern gentleman and never acted pretentious at all,” Judd recalled Sunday. “Just friends out for a day of fishing … complete with armed security.”
The former president fished with some phosphate industry VIPs along with one of Carter’s sons, said Judd, who has served as Polk’s sheriff since 2005.
When it came time for lunch, Judd found himself seated in front of Carter at a picnic table. A jar of pickled okra was placed on the table and only Carter and Judd reached for it.
“He asked me if I liked pickled okra; I said, ‘Yes, sir;’ and he said, ‘So do I,’ and we started eating them,” Judd said. “We finished off the jar. I’m sure I would have let him have the last okra; my mother raised me right … Always let the president of the United States have the last piece of okra.”
As for the fish Carter caught, Judd said he released it back into the pond.
LkldNow reporter Kimberly C. Moore contributed to this report.
