Jody Powell, Trusted Aide to Jimmy Carter, Dies at 65
WASHINGTON — Jody Powell, a sandy-haired former Georgia farm boy who was President Jimmy Carter’s closest and most trusted aide, working with him from his days as Georgia governor through the Carter presidency, died Monday at his home near Cambridge, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. He was 65.
Mr. Powell collapsed outside his home, and efforts to revive him at a hospital were futile, said Jack Nelson, who hurled questions at Mr. Powell three decades ago as Washington bureau chief of The Los Angeles Times and became his good friend afterward. Mr. Nelson said Mr. Powell’s wife, Nan, had told him her husband apparently suffered a heart attack.
After leaving the White House in 1981, Mr. Powell was a syndicated columnist, author and public relations executive. In recent years, he was chairman of Powell Tate, an influential Washington-based public relations firm in which he was a partner, somewhat improbably, with Sheila Tate, a former press aide for Nancy Reagan.
Mr. Powell’s official White House title was press secretary to Mr. Carter, but he was much more than that. Unlike many White House spokesmen, Mr. Powell really did have his boss’s ear and really was privy to his boss’s thinking.
“Jody was beside me in every decision I made as a candidate, governor and president, and I could always depend on his advice and counsel being candid and direct,” Mr. Carter said in a statement on Monday. “I will miss him dearly.”
Mr. Powell’s path to the White House really began in 1966, when he was walking through a south Georgia shopping center and a smiling man thrust a hand toward him and said, “Hi! I’m Jimmy Carter, and I’m running for governor.”
Then not long out of college, Mr. Powell took an immediate liking to the aspiring governor. They had roots in the same region in Georgia: Mr. Carter was from Plains, and Mr. Powell grew up in Vienna, about 25 miles away. Mr. Carter was a peanut farmer. So was Mr. Powell’s father, who also raised cotton. And both men were churchgoing Baptists.
Mr. Carter lost in 1966, and when he ran for governor again in 1970, Mr. Powell volunteered to work in the campaign. He was Mr. Carter’s chauffeur and formed an easy rapport with the candidate, who was impressed by Mr. Powell’s knowledge of politics. Soon, Mr. Powell was functioning as press secretary, a position that became official when Mr. Carter moved into the Governor’s Mansion...
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Mr. Powell collapsed outside his home, and efforts to revive him at a hospital were futile, said Jack Nelson, who hurled questions at Mr. Powell three decades ago as Washington bureau chief of The Los Angeles Times and became his good friend afterward. Mr. Nelson said Mr. Powell’s wife, Nan, had told him her husband apparently suffered a heart attack.
After leaving the White House in 1981, Mr. Powell was a syndicated columnist, author and public relations executive. In recent years, he was chairman of Powell Tate, an influential Washington-based public relations firm in which he was a partner, somewhat improbably, with Sheila Tate, a former press aide for Nancy Reagan.
Mr. Powell’s official White House title was press secretary to Mr. Carter, but he was much more than that. Unlike many White House spokesmen, Mr. Powell really did have his boss’s ear and really was privy to his boss’s thinking.
“Jody was beside me in every decision I made as a candidate, governor and president, and I could always depend on his advice and counsel being candid and direct,” Mr. Carter said in a statement on Monday. “I will miss him dearly.”
Mr. Powell’s path to the White House really began in 1966, when he was walking through a south Georgia shopping center and a smiling man thrust a hand toward him and said, “Hi! I’m Jimmy Carter, and I’m running for governor.”
Then not long out of college, Mr. Powell took an immediate liking to the aspiring governor. They had roots in the same region in Georgia: Mr. Carter was from Plains, and Mr. Powell grew up in Vienna, about 25 miles away. Mr. Carter was a peanut farmer. So was Mr. Powell’s father, who also raised cotton. And both men were churchgoing Baptists.
Mr. Carter lost in 1966, and when he ran for governor again in 1970, Mr. Powell volunteered to work in the campaign. He was Mr. Carter’s chauffeur and formed an easy rapport with the candidate, who was impressed by Mr. Powell’s knowledge of politics. Soon, Mr. Powell was functioning as press secretary, a position that became official when Mr. Carter moved into the Governor’s Mansion...