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‘I Feel So Lucky To Have This Memory’: Maryland Man Harkens Back to Photo with President Jimmy Carter

The death of former President Jimmy Carter Sunday brought back a happy memory that Josh Davidsburg, a senior lecturer at University of Maryland College Park, admittedly doesn’t truly remember.

As a mere two-year-old, Davidsburg was in the VIP area watching a Fourth of July parade in Atlanta with his mother. His father, a television commentator, was riding on his station’s float.

Davidsburg wandered off and noticed people shaking hands with Carter. He walked right up to him and said, “Uppy.” Carter happily obliged, and the moment was captured in a newspaper photograph with Davidsburg sitting on Carter’s lap while holding a U.S. flag.

“I don’t specifically remember it,” he told MCM. However, he said, “My family has talked about it so much,” it feels like a vivid memory.

Davidsburg, who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degree from University of Maryland, admitted, “I had no idea” whose lap he was on.

“I later went on to become a reporter. This was my first big politician,” he said. Since then, he has interviewed many, including President Joe Biden when he was a Delaware senator.

However, “Everything has paled in comparison,” he said. “This was such a nice memory. I feel so lucky to have this memory.”

For a few years, the framed newspaper clipping hung above his daughter’s crib, but she no longer is in a crib, he said.

While Davidsburg doesn’t plan to structure a lecture to his students about his special moment, “It’s something we’ll talk about,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, as well as many others, took to social media to express their sorrow that Carter had died at the age of 100.

“America mourns sharply the loss of President Jimmy Carter. A leader of soaring integrity and passionate devotion to human rights, his legacy already sparkles like a diamond in the rough. With millions of Americans, I send love and gratitude to the Carter family,” Raskin wrote.

Photos courtesy Josh Davidsburg

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