President Jimmy Carter; Milwaukee neighbors share his impact
MILWAUKEE - Jimmy Carter's legacy lives on in a Milwaukee neighborhood.
Milwaukee families who live there still share the story.
For 35 years, Cecelia Dukuly shared the special story of who built her home: a former president.
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In 1989, Carter, wife Rosalynn, other Habitat for Humanity volunteers, and Dukuly spent a week building her home at 23rd and Walnut.
"It's a blessing. That's what I would say," Dukuly said. "It's a blessing. God blessing."
The work spread down this street to the home owned by Diana Wilson.
"The smile is what touched me every day, because when you see him smiling, you smile," Wilson said. "He was a good person."
Habitat for Humanity said a team of 1,000 built six Milwaukee homes on 23rd and Walnut and renovated another eight.
"I knew that he had came into my life and brought joy into my life, something that I would have for the end of my life and to pass on to my kids," Wilson said. "So it meant a lot to me that he came into my life."
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And for 35 years, these Milwaukeeans have been telling personal stories about former President Carter.
"I just talk about him, because he's a good man. You know, when you're good, people talk about you a lot, how good this person is, that he was just a great guy that loved everybody," Dukuly said. "You see, he loved everybody. He don't discriminate. He loved everybody."
The man who once commanded the U.S. military instead wielded a hammer and built homes for those in need, including right here in Milwaukee.
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"There will never ever be another Jimmy Carter, never," Wilson said. "There is nobody who does what he did."
Years later, Carter invited Dukely and others like her to build homes in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. That cycle of giving continues today, even after the death of former President Carter.