Jimmy Carter plans to teach Sunday school despite breaking pelvis

PLAINS, Ga. - It's going to take more than a fractured pelvis to prevent Jimmy Carter, a lifelong Baptist and the nation's oldest former president, from teaching Sunday school.

(Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Carter's church in Plains, Georgia, said Tuesday the 95-year-old ex-president plans to teach his Sunday school class this week less than two weeks after breaking his pelvis in a fall.

The announcement by Maranatha Baptist Church came a day after it had said Carter wasn't up to appearing.

"We are proud and relieved to announce President Carter has changed his mind and decided that he feels well enough (to) teach," said the update.

The pastor at Maranatha Baptist, Tony Lowden, said Carter's stamina is "amazing."

"I've never seen anything like him," Lowden said.

Carter suffered the fracture in a fall on Oct. 21 that happened shortly after another tumble in which he hit his head and required stitches.

Carter has been teaching Sunday school for decades, and big crowds typically show up at his small church in Plains, Georgia, to hear his lessons. He missed last Sunday because of the injury.

Aides have said Carter is recovering at home following a hospital stay. He lives only a short distance from the church, located in rural southwest Georgia.

Carter has fallen at least three times this year, and the first incident in the spring required hip replacement surgery. He traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, and helped build a Habitat for Humanity home after getting 14 stiches following a fall on Oct. 6.

While Carter used to stand as he taught the class, which is held in the sanctuary, he has used a chair with a motorized seat lift in recent months.

The 39th president received a dire cancer diagnosis in 2015 but survived and has since said he is cancer-free.