Tom Campbell, co-founder and co-owner of The Regulator Bookshop, Durham, N.C., from 1976 to 2017, remembers a visit by the late Jimmy Carter.
Jimmy Carter came to The Regulator Bookshop in 2003 to sign copies of his latest book, The Hornet's Nest: A Novel of the Revolutionary War. A couple of weeks before he was scheduled to appear, a woman came into the bookshop and asked to talk to me. The woman said she was the caregiver for Juanita Kreps, who had been a dean and professor of economics at Duke, and Secretary of Commerce in President Carter's cabinet for the first two years of his term. Ms. Kreps was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, her caregiver explained, but she still remembered her time as Secretary of Commerce, and it would make her very happy to see Jimmy Carter again, privately, for a short period of time.
I replied that I would try to make this happen, and immediately got in touch with people on Carter's staff. I explained the situation to them, and told them that they should convey to President Carter that while Ms. Kreps could still understand many things, her ability to speak was greatly diminished.
When President Carter arrived at The Regulator on the evening of his book signing, he and a member of his staff and a Secret Service agent came in through the downstairs back door, where the door to the Computer Cellar is now. (The bookstore at that time took up both floors of the building at 720 Ninth Street.) We had arranged that no customers would be allowed downstairs just then, so when Jimmy Carter entered the building, the only people there to greet him were me, Juanita Kreps, and her caregiver. Carter broke out in a smile and proceeded to make quite a fuss over Ms. Kreps, telling her things like how great she had been in his cabinet, how very glad he was to see her again, how much she had helped our country, how young she still looked, etc., etc. I can only describe her response by saying that she simply lit up and glowed, smiling all the while.
Since Jimmy Carter passed away, much has been written about his kind and caring nature. From what I saw that night at The Regulator, I can completely agree that he was indeed a truly kind and caring human being.