You can never go wrong with a sentimental gift for the man (or couple) who has everything. Country singers Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks know this too, so they acted on it when gift-buying for the Carters.
Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary on July 10, with a 300-person party at the Plains High School auditorium in Plains, Georgia, where the couple has the family home. Yearwood and Brooks, who have worked with the Carters and the Carter Foundation on charity projects, arrived ahead of the celebrations and, with help from Carters’ longtime friend, Jill Stuckey, carried out what has been dubbed Operation “Surprise Peanut,” Stuckey tells People Magazine.
The three met without the Carters’ knowledge outside the Plains home, where they were met by Secret Service. As every other surviving U.S. President, Jimmy Carter still has state protection. Carter served as the country’s 39th president, between January 1977 and January 1981, if you still needed this brief history lesson.
The country music couple brought with them their present: a fully-restored, gorgeous, red 1964 Ford Super Deluxe convertible, which rolled off the production line the same year when the Carters were married. Stuckey says the car was kept in the garage until before the party, which is when the Carters were presented with it. They were “very excited,” she says, with “bright eyes and big smiles.” An understandable reaction even without the powerful association with the 75 years they’ve been married for.
The restoration was handled by Bennett Automotive Specialists, who also offered a much better look at the convertible than Stuckey does with the couple of photos she released to People. The red exterior is matched with an equally gorgeous red on beige interior, a beige soft top, and lots of shiny chrome. Not a bad way to remember your wedding day.