Former president Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalynn set record with their upcoming 75th anniversary

Former President Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are celebrating 75 years of marriage this summer and plan to celebrate the milestone in grand fashion. They are the longest-married Presidential couple, having surpassed the record of 73 years and 111 days, that of former President George H. W. Bush and Barbara Bush. Jimmy Carter credits his marriage for his long and healthy life. "I think the best explanation for that is to marry the best spouse: someone who will take care of you and engage and do things to challenge you and keep you alive and interested in life. One of the things Jesus taught was: If you have any talents, try to utilize them for the benefit of others,” Carter told PEOPLE. Carter is 96 while Rosalynn is 93. President Carter is also the oldest living president in American history.

Their grandson Jason Carter said the couple has huge plans for their incredible milestone. "What they're really doing these days is planning their 75th-anniversary party for July," said Jason, according to People. They plan to hold the party in their hometown of Plains, Georgia. Jason opened up about it in a documentary about his grandfather. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter have rarely made public appearances over the last year on account of the Coronavirus pandemic. After the pair were vaccinated earlier this year, they made a few public appearances. Jason said his grandparents had planned a "big party ... with a lot of their friends from over the years."

Jason said he considered their marriage a huge achievement. "The number of things that have to go right in your life to have a '75th anniversary'. It's a truly incredible milestone," he said. Jimmy Carter has always maintained that Rosalynn was the best thing that ever happened to him. "That's the pinnacle of my life," he said of marrying his wife. They tied the knot on July 7, 1946, and a year later, Rosalynn Carter gave birth to their first child together, Jack They went on to have three more children: sons Chip and Jeff and, after a 14-year gap, daughter Amy.

Jimmy Carter said he knew Rosalynn was 'the one' right after the first date. "I just felt compatible with her," said Carter. "She was beautiful and innocent, and there was a resonance. We rode in the rumble seat of a Ford pickup — Ruth and her boyfriend in the front — and I kissed her on that first date. I remember that vividly." The very next day he told his mother that "Rosalynn was the one I wanted to marry."

The former president and his wife have spent years helping build Habitat for Humanity houses in Nashville, Tennessee. They have worked on more than 4,000 homes spread across 36 years. Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for "his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development." The former first lady is the chair of the Carter Center mental health task force, and has been a mental health advocate for more than 45 years.

President Carter also said that his wife played a major role in his elections. “When she joined me in political campaigning — always appearing without me — she was effective in securing support from doubtful voters, and I soon realized that people were more inclined to express their beliefs or concerns to her than to me. … [S]he liked the entire political process more than I did,” he wrote in his autobiography A Full Life: Reflections At Ninety, reported The Daily Caller.