CLEVELAND — Few Ohioans knew President Jimmy Carter like former Congresswoman Mary Rose Oakar, who arrived in Washington like Carter after winning victory in the election of 1976.
Oakar had just won a crowded primary for an open congressional seat in the spring of that year. Assured of victory in the heavily Democratic district, Carter invited her to be with him when he accepted the nomination at the Democratic National Convention in New York City.
Carter died Sunday at 100 years old. He had been in hospice care since February 2023, following several hospital stays.
RELATED: Former President Jimmy Carter dies at age 100
"For some reason, he said, 'Young lady, I want you to come up on the stage.' I mean, I was like a neophyte," she recalled.
"He said, ‘I want you on the stage when I'm nominated,’ so I got on the stage. After that, he was so nice to me; he'd invite me to dinners at the White House, and they'd publish who was there, and these older members of Congress would say, how did you get in there? You're a freshman," Oakar told News 5.
"I said, ‘well, the President's very nice to me.’ He was brilliant. When we'd go to briefings at the White House, he wouldn't use a note," she said of the meetings, with Carter going off the top of his head. "And they would be very much of substance. Reagan would have a few notes, say good morning, then hand it over to staff."
She recalled working with the president on one of his greatest achievements, reforming the nation's energy policymaking to make the U.S. less dependent on foreign oil.
"He did a lot for energy; he was the author of a huge energy bill which we passed, and then came the Iranian hostage crisis. I never heard of solar energy that much until Carter put it in a bill, and it all passed because he did not want us to be subject to foreign oil. He wanted America to be independent, and we still use some of the ideas in that legislation." said Oakar.
"But then came the Iranian hostage crisis, where they took 60 or more of our people from the embassy and held them hostage, and Carter became sort of reclusive because he really wanted to work on getting them free without any of them dying because they kept threatening that. But because of the crisis there were long gas lines and all of the work he did on energy people forgot because you'd have to wait in line and the mortgage rates were pretty high, the economy was not in his favor," she recalled of the headwinds that cost Carter his re-election bid to Ronald Reagan.
"The day Carter left office, the Iranians freed the hostages, and who do you think got credit? Reagan. And it was Carter who negotiated the whole thing and they had waited too long to release them. I went to the reception, and Reagan sponsored it, and everybody congratulated President Reagan and poor Carter was back in Plains, Georgia," she said.
That 1980 election had only one head-to-head debate between Reagan and Carter, and it was held in Cleveland. Oakar met First Lady Rosalynn Carter at the airport that day.
"There's a place called Franciscan Village in the West Park area, and she came to dedicate the building to seniors with me," she said.
"That's when he lost the election," Oakar said of the debate. "Reagan was terrific. The one line they gave him he really memorized: Are you better off today than you were four years ago? And I was sitting there, and I thought, oh no, that's it, man."
The loss cost Carter what Oakar believes could have been his crowning achievement.
"I think if he had been re-elected, he would have had peace in the Middle East because he knew how to mediate and he practically locked them up at Camp David until they produced something," she said. "I think the Camp David accords are still so important and were the stepping stones for peace and if you have it in the Middle East you can almost have it anywhere."
His greatest act, though, was his second one, said Oakar.
"I think he's the best ex-president we've ever had. He and Rosalynn have gone to foreign countries, tiny little countries, helped them with their healthcare, he's taught them farming, he's taught them how to build homes."
She remembered being invited by him to join him overseas, where he was asked to monitor a Palestinian election. "It was remarkable to see him in action, how he could resolve difficulties people had been angry at the polls or whatever it was, and Carter knew how to handle it. He's really a peacemaker, and I don't think anyone has achieved what he did in peace.
She continued, “to get Sadat, one of 22 Arab countries, to acknowledge Israel's right to exist and then to have Israel acknowledge Egypt, and they have a warm relationship to this day. I think this happens often that people don't get credit for what they did and he's one of them."
