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In Loving Memory of President Jimmy Carter - In honor of President Jimmy Carter's funeral, Paula is sharing some memories she has of her friend, Mr. Jimmy.
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0:00
- Hey y'all.
0:01
I'm sitting here dressed in black,
0:05
along with my younger son, Bobby.
0:08
- Also dressed in black.
0:10
- Yes, you are, Jujitsu black.
0:13
- (laughing) I hope it's not.
0:14
- But anyway, today is
0:19
Mr. Jimmy, President Jimmy Carter's funeral is taking place,
0:24
and this funeral is in Washington,
0:27
and I think it was by invitation only.
0:31
And I wouldn't have expected an invitation,
0:36
or to be included in this,
0:37
because Mr. Jimmy and I had a friendship
0:41
that was not political at all.
0:45
Politics never came into our friendship.
0:51
And I remember telling my production team years ago, Bobby,
0:57
that Mr. Jimmy was...
1:00
and I'll tell you why I call him Mr. Jimmy.
1:03
When I went to Plains,
1:08
Well, I don't know where that picture went.
1:10
Oh, maybe in here.
1:15
When I went to Plains to meet him,
1:22
because he had agreed to do a show.
1:25
This is one of my favorite pictures,
1:26
and I'll tell y'all about this, 'cause it's a funny story.
1:38
After we said hello to each other,
1:41
and gave each other a hug and a handshake and all that,
1:45
I asked him, how should I address him?
1:51
And he said, "You call me Jimmy."
1:53
I said, "Oh, I don't think my upbringing
1:55
"would let me do that,
1:57
"but I will agree to call you Mr. Jimmy."
2:00
So he's always been Mr. Jimmy to me and Miss Rosalynn.
2:05
It's just always been that way.
2:08
And, like I said,
2:11
we formed a friendship over the years.
2:13
We filmed the one and only show that
2:16
I actually did with him for a network.
2:22
And he was so easy to talk to.
2:26
And my fondest memories are
2:28
sitting out in front of the bed and breakfast.
2:32
You know, there's just one little block of Plains.
2:35
And we were sitting in rocking chairs out there
2:37
and just chatting, just chatting.
2:42
Because we were, you know, the same section of the world.
2:51
So over the years he had asked me
2:55
if I would do benefits to help him,
3:00
and this was a benefit that we had in Plains,
3:04
and it may have been for the Cancer Coalition,
3:08
but I know I did several things with Mr. Jimmy
3:10
to help preserve Plains, Georgia.
3:14
And we were auctioning off some items
3:18
at the end of the celebration,
3:22
and I was trying to auction off this necklace,
3:27
and I said,
3:28
"This is really a pretty necklace, y'all.
3:30
"Come over here, Mr. Jimmy and let me put it on you,
3:34
"so that everybody can see how pretty it is."
3:37
And you can see that big old smile on his face.
3:41
He got a kick out of that.
3:43
I don't know who bought that necklace,
3:45
but don't let anything happen to it,
3:47
because, (chuckles) to me, it's very special.
3:51
- Well, it became instantly more appealing
3:53
the moment it went around his neck, I'm sure.
3:55
- Absolutely, absolutely. - Selling feature.
3:58
- Yes and I can't remember what all,
4:01
but this book is from August, 2012,
4:05
the Cancer Coalition dinner.
4:09
And I've just got some very special pictures.
4:14
I think this is one of the sweetest, sweetest pictures.
4:18
- Yeah, Gordon Elliot had always said
4:20
that he had a crush on you.
4:22
- Well-
4:23
- [Bobby] I think that might've been true.
4:24
He acted a little smitten whenever you were around.
4:28
- Did he?
4:29
- [Bobby] Mm, hm. Yeah.
4:30
(Paula chuckles)
4:31
- Oh my goodness.
4:32
Well.
4:34
And there's me and Miss Rosalynn.
4:36
She wasn't nearly as outgoing as Mr. Jimmy,
4:40
but she was a very sweet and kind lady.
4:44
In fact, I've got actually two
4:47
thank you notes from Miss Rosalynn.
4:50
This is when I sent 'em a copy of one of the cookbooks, son.
4:54
And this is when...
4:56
(paper rattling)
5:00
- [Bobby] It was great having you in our home
5:02
and the dinner was delicious.
5:03
- Yes, yes. Do you remember? - [Bobby] Of course.
5:05
- We all, the whole family went
5:06
to Mr. Jimmy and Miss Rosalynn's and I cooked,
5:11
and we just had such a good time.
5:15
And I can't put my fingers on those pictures,
5:19
but Bobby, this-
5:20
- [Bobby] 'Cause I got 'em.
5:21
- Good. - [Bobby] I was taking 'em.
5:23
- Good. This picture- - Love it.
5:25
- Is my first meeting, of meeting Mr. Jimmy.
5:29
- [Bobby] That's from my home.
5:30
I have that picture at my house. I love it.
5:33
- Yes, you took that picture.
5:34
- I took it.
5:36
- And there's just, you know, I've got my memories
5:43
and there's Hollis and me.
5:47
You know, Hollis was like one of my children to me.
5:53
You know, he and I spent so much time together,
5:56
and he took me everywhere I needed to be.
5:58
God bless Hollis.
5:59
And I was so happy that he actually
6:02
got to meet Mr. Jimmy and shake his hand.
6:05
And then they contacted me
6:10
to see if I would be in a play on the rail, on the
6:15
- [Crew Member] A murder mystery.
6:16
- A murder mystery
6:17
on the train. - [Bobby] The train. Yeah.
6:20
- That goes from Plains to Americas.
6:23
And I said, you know, I would love to come help do that.
6:28
And this was the morning
6:31
that we shot that show on the train.
6:34
There's my sister-in-law,
6:36
my beautiful, beautiful precious Sandy.
6:39
That's me, that's Miss Rosalynn and Mr. Jimmy and Eddie.
6:45
- Ed makes the scene.
6:47
- Eddie looks like secret service right there, doesn't he?
6:50
- Aviators will do that to you.
6:53
- Yes. Looks just like a...
6:57
And then one year, I don't think this has a date on it,
7:02
but Mr. Jimmy. - [Bobby] Yeah, '05.
7:04
- It does? Oh yeah, okay, I see it.
7:07
Mr. Jimmy gave me a Christmas ornament
7:10
and signed it from Plains.
7:14
And I keep this in the China cabinet,
7:16
because I don't want anything to happen to it.
7:18
- [Bobby] Yep. It's special. - Yes. It's so special.
7:21
Whoa. Watch it.
7:22
(glass clinking)
7:23
(Bobby laughing)
7:25
- And then we were invited to the 75th wedding anniversary
7:34
of Mr. Jimmy and Miss Rosalynn.
7:37
And- - 2021.
7:39
- Yes. And look at that,
7:42
it's Miss Rosalynn and Mr. Jimmy's hands, holding hands.
7:46
And this was a thank you gift to everybody for coming
7:53
and celebrating this anniversary.
7:56
They really had quite a love story.
7:59
The two of them.
8:02
And I think this was also,
8:06
- [Bobby] Same thing.
8:06
- Jimmy Carter, National Historical Park, Plains, Georgia.
8:11
Miss Rosalynn and Mr. Jimmy Carter,
8:15
the anniversary celebration and that was so wonderful.
8:22
And this was in the receiving line.
8:24
And I asked Aunt Peggy if she would like to go with me
8:28
to this celebration.
8:30
And she said, "Well, yes, of course."
8:35
That was us in a receiving line.
8:38
And I knew that he was declining, you know, at this age.
8:47
But I thought, I'll bet he doesn't even remember who I am.
8:51
And I got up to him and he looked up and said, "Paula Deen."
8:56
I said, yes, it's still me, fat and sassy, (chuckling)
9:01
but I've got memories.
9:03
Do you have any memories to share, Bobby?
9:05
- Well, I do.
9:06
This book, we have two books.
9:08
One of them is yours and the other is mine.
9:13
And these are, I have a nice book collection at home
9:15
and I love autographed things.
9:18
- Yes, I do too.
9:19
- And this is a treasure to me.
9:20
- And I'm so thankful he did not personalize them.
9:24
Because when a book is personalized,
9:28
even if it was a collectible, it the value of it-
9:32
- Steals from it a little bit.
9:32
- Yeah, a lot.
9:33
A whole lot, yes - It's much more special.
9:38
And another thing is that trip to Plains
9:42
when you did the show with him in their home,
9:44
gosh, that was so much fun. - Wasn't it?
9:46
- We actually got to inside the home
9:48
of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter.
9:50
And it was a, it's a pretty home.
9:53
- Very average. - Modest.
9:54
Modest in every way.
9:56
In Plains, you know, they lived right in the same home
9:58
for many, many years.
9:59
- Yes. They were both born there.
10:01
- They were so welcoming and kind.
10:03
And we were right there in their living room.
10:07
- Is this when y'all were doing the filming in the kitchen?
10:11
- [Paula] Yes ma'am. - Exactly,
10:12
Mom was cooking in the kitchen
10:14
with Ms. Rosalynn and Mr. Jimmy
10:16
and the production crew had some aprons made
10:20
for the show that said on them "Hail to the Chef,"
10:24
which is a clever play on words.
10:27
And I had Mr. Jimmy and Rosalynn sign this apron.
10:32
And this is a treasure to me.
10:35
'cause it's pristine. I've kept it in that bag since.
10:39
- Yes, yes.
10:40
- It's almost 20 years old.
10:41
- And Bobby said before we started
10:43
sharing our memories with y'all,
10:45
Bobby said, "Mama, you can't touch my apron
10:48
"unless you go wash your hands with soap."
10:49
- Go wash your hands your hands, yep.
10:51
Well it doesn't have a mark on it.
10:53
I've never used it or worn it.
10:54
- It doesn't, it doesn't.
10:55
It's in perfect condition. - Great shape. Yeah.
10:57
- Perfect condition, Bobby.
10:58
- That's a nice, that's a nice thing to have.
11:00
But they were so kind and there was one other thing.
11:03
We had lunch, you know, we were there for a couple days
11:06
and we went over one of the little historical buildings
11:11
there in Plains.
11:12
And we had lunch together
11:12
and we sat and everybody knows,
11:15
that knows Jimmy Carter, knows that he likes to
11:19
have buttermilk dipped in cornbread after his meal.
11:22
That was kind of his dessert.
11:23
- And that's what Aunt Peggy does.
11:25
I have to make cornbread for her buttermilk.
11:28
- And we sat that day and had lunch and Rosalynn and Jimmy
11:33
and us and everything.
11:34
And we were sitting and chatting
11:35
and he was dipping his cornbread in this buttermilk
11:38
as we were kinda wrapping up the meal.
11:42
And he and Rosalynn was sitting there, she was drinking wine
11:46
out of just a super-ordinary little wine glass.
11:48
She was having a glass of white wine.
11:51
And when the meal was done, they both got up and left.
11:53
And I just said, well, I'll be taking that Solo cup
11:55
and I'll be taking that wine glass
11:56
and I have them at my house.
11:58
- Oh, my gosh.
12:00
- I kept that.
12:01
For a long time. I didn't wash the Solo cup.
12:04
- Well- - With the buttermilk in it.
12:05
- The buttermilk and all the cultures that are in it.
12:08
When I went and looked down a couple of years later,
12:10
it was growing. It had its own-
12:12
- It was growing its own penicillin.
12:14
(Paula laughing)
12:16
- I mean it was, blah! I gotta clean this.
12:19
So eventually I cleaned the Solo cup, but I still have it.
12:21
And got that in a Ziploc bag.
12:23
And I kept that little ordinary wine glass
12:25
that she drank that she drank her wine from.
12:27
- Was it plastic or was it glass?
12:28
- The wine glass is glass. Yeah.
12:30
And it's been in my guest house for a long time
12:32
and it could've been used,
12:34
but it's still around. - It probably has.
12:36
Well, you know, cornbread and buttermilk, son,
12:40
is a very, very old, old thing
12:45
that you don't see young people doing that anymore.
12:50
Just the thought of drinking buttermilk is (chuckling)
12:55
too much for me. - Yeah, I'm not into it
12:56
But he was. He was.
12:57
- But Aunt Peggy loves it.
12:58
And so did your great-grandmother and granddaddy Hires.
13:03
I don't think grand-mama Paul was too much into it.
13:08
You could probably answer that Aunt Peggy.
13:12
- Well, in recipes. Yeah.
13:14
- Yeah. Oh it's great in Ranch dressing.
13:16
- Yeah right, time and place.
13:18
So Jimmy Carter, very special man, Georgian,
13:22
fellow Georgian like you, definitely had a crush on you,
13:25
'cause I could see it.
13:26
And so, but that is, so: Jimmy,
13:34
President Obama,
13:36
George Bush, George W. Bush and who else?
13:42
- Trump.
13:43
- Donald Trump.
13:45
You've had a little bit of a closeness
13:48
with four living, well, Mr. Jimmy's gone now, but
13:52
how many living presidents are there? Five?
13:54
- There's five, which is amazing.
13:55
- Yeah and four of them, we've got pictures of you
13:57
with four of 'em
13:58
and you've got sort of into the inner circle.
13:59
- Isn't something?
14:01
- That really is something for a little girl from Albany.
14:03
That's not too bad.
14:05
- (chuckling) Right down the road.
14:06
- And we fed, George W. Bush came to Savannah in
14:10
gosh, I've got, 'cause oh, here's a keepsake too.
14:12
I've got from Air Force One a little box of M&Ms.
14:16
- (Paula laughing) You haven't eaten 'em?
14:18
Because one of your favorite treats is M&Ms.
14:22
- My wife and I were going through some things the other day
14:25
and she goes, "What is this?"
14:26
And I said, "well that's a box of M&Ms from Air Force One.
14:28
And she shook it and she said, "They're still in here."
14:30
And it had the year on it too.
14:32
I think it was 2006 or something.
14:35
I was like, well yeah, they still are in here, but...
14:38
That's a nice little keepsake too.
14:40
We fed George W. Bush and Barack and Michelle Obama.
14:44
You did a show with Michelle Obama
14:46
- I shot a show with Michelle yes.
14:47
- And Mr. Jimmy obviously.
14:51
And yeah there you go.
14:53
And Bill Clinton came to Savannah
14:54
and I got a baseball signed by Bill Clinton.
14:58
Not many people's been fortunate
15:00
to get themselves in that circle.
15:01
I know, we have been blessed.
15:04
We have been blessed.
15:06
But Mr. Jimmy will always be special to me,
15:09
because there was not a kinder man has ever been born.
15:16
He was so kind and he loved people.
15:21
He just loved people.
15:22
So it makes me a little sad to know I can't get in the car
15:26
and go down to Plains and go by to see him.
15:30
It makes me sad.
15:31
But we've got wonderful memories
15:33
and I'm thankful for every one of 'em, son.
15:35
And I'm so thankful to you that you can fill in some
15:38
of the blanks for me.
15:42
- Glad I was able to be there.
15:43
So, rest in peace Mr. Carter.
15:44
- Yes. Mr. Jimmy. We'll always love you.
15:50
(no audio)
16:11
Hey, y'all, it's Paula Deen.
16:13
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16:16
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16:20
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16:24
Love and Best Dishes Y'all.
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