Minnesota lawyer remembers her friend Jimmy Carter: ‘My hero, my mentor and my friend’

It was an unlikely friendship: a former president of the United States and an activist Minneapolis attorney who first met in 1981 when she was a high school student and he had just lost his reelection bid in a landslide.

She admired his politics and values, and he admired her exuberance and commitment to social causes.

And over the course of four decades, the friendship between Jimmy Carter and Lori Peterson matured and flourished. Carter died on Dec. 29 at 100 after being in hospice for nearly two years.

“He meant so much to so many — to me, for sure,” said Peterson. “He was my hero, my mentor and my friend.”

Carter and Peterson met because of her persistence. At his invitation, she wound up making dozens of trips to Carter’s home in Plains, Ga., to visit with him and his wife Rosalynn. They’d sometimes meet at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport when the Carters were changing planes and had a layover. She has numerous photographs of their visits together.

Carter acknowledged his friendship with Peterson in 1993 when she was the subject of a feature story in the Star Tribune. She’s represented many clients in cases of sexual harassment and discrimination and has been an outspoken supporter of animal rights.

“She is an extra-special person,” Carter told the Star Tribune. “She is enthusiastic and vivacious and determined and idealistic.”

When Peterson was interviewed about one of her cases by CNN’s Larry King, Carter watched the show.

“I thought she did great,” he told the paper. “Lori was very attractive in her presentation, very forceful and eloquent. ... She’s been just as enthusiastic on environmental issues or mistreatment of animals. ... I think this protection of women’s rights is a continuation of her interest in things that are innovative and idealistic.”

Peterson was 12 and living in Hawley, Minn., about 20 miles east of Moorhead, when she became aware of Carter’s presidential campaign in 1976. “I thought, ‘What an amazing human being,’ ” she said. “He was completely fascinating.”

She distributed Carter’s campaign brochures door-to-door in Hawley and talked her father into driving her to nearby communities to do the same there. By the time she was 17, she was co-chair of the Clay County DFL and a member of the party’s state central committee.

In the meantime, she wanted to meet Carter. She sent letters to people who were identified in the news as friends of the president. One of them was John Pope, who lived in Americus, Ga., near Plains. Pope took her letter over to the Carters.

“They said, ‘Have her come down,’ ” she said.

By the time arrangements were finalized, Carter had lost the 1980 election to Ronald Reagan. Peterson showed up in Plains in 1981.

“We spent time at his house,” she said. “They took me to church. When we went out to dinner, I was pretty floored. It was like a dream. Rosalynn was just fabulous, so generous.”

At the time, the Carters were trying to map out their post-presidential lives. “They were looking about how to spend their life to make a difference in ending suffering in the world,” Peterson said. “It was all about philanthropy, it was all about making change.”

Peterson gave Carter a quilt she had made. Each square marked a significant aspect of his career; one read “Panama Canal Treaty,” and others had campaign slogans. One square read “Day 444,” marking the day in 1981 that American embassy hostages were released in Iran following a long standoff with the regime headed by Ayatollah Khomeini.

When she saw Carter the next day, he told her he had used the quilt the night before. “Day 444 kept my feet warm,” he joked.

Peterson, who graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School, periodically makes news about lawsuits she’s filed, often about sexual harassment. Now 61, she also operates a small sanctuary for rescued animals at her home in the western suburbs. She plans to sell her home and expand her nonprofit, www.ImagineFarm.org, to include more rescued animals and animal humane education programs.

Whenever Peterson was in Plains, Carter would invite her to the church where he was teaching Sunday school. “Jimmy once introduced me in his church as ‘My friend Lori Peterson, a very famous lawyer,’ ” she said. Into his 90s, Carter would stand for an hour, quoting Bible verses without notes.

“I respected him, because he walked the talk, and his belief was faith without works is dead,” Peterson said. “The way to honor him is to do more.”

She estimates that she received more than 100 letters from the Carters. She once wrote asking for one of the former president’s ties. The following week, she received a package from him containing a tie — signed and dated.

Matthew Scully, who lives near Scottsdale, Az., was a senior speechwriter for President George W. Bush and authored a book in 2002, “Dominion,” about cruelty to animals. Peterson reached out to him after reading the book and they became friends, he said. She arranged for him to get an invitation to a meeting conducted by the Carter Center, Carter’s Atlanta-based nonprofit that promotes human rights, conflict resolution and health programs.

Scully said when he attended the program, he introduced himself to Carter, saying he was a friend of Peterson’s. Carter responded, “Oh, Lori is a very dear friend.” Rosalynn Carter told him, “We think so highly of Lori.”

Scully said it was “very unusual” for a former president to strike up such a friendship with an ordinary citizen.

“Lori’s is a very rare case,” he said. “It reflects great qualities about both. President Carter never thought he was above any friendship with anyone. ... She is a very thoughtful and compassionate person. And I am sure President Carter was very impressed by her and was happy to have her as a friend.”

Peterson said she didn’t plan to attend services for Carter this week because she had too many animals to care for at home and was busy with her legal casework. There’s another reason, too.

“I feel I would sob so hard,” she said, “I would disrupt everything.”