Cheyenne resident Susan Allen will likely never forget the moment when then-President Jimmy Carter picked up the phone and talked to her, answering questions she had for the man holding the most powerful office in the world.
Allen spoke to Carter when she was 12 years old as part of an "Ask President Carter" event on the CBS Radio Network that the White House had offered with the then-president six weeks after taking office in March 1977.
Carter died Sunday at the age of 100.
Although he’s widely regarded as one of the least effective U.S. presidents, Carter’s post-office humanitarian work shaped his legacy.
What Did They Talk About?
One day while laying on the floor watching the news on TV, an announcement came on that people could call in and pose questions to Carter.
“He was really the first president to reach out and identify with basic people, just average, everyday citizens,” she told Cowboy State Daily on Monday.
Other presidents have dabbled with outreach events like these as well, like with former President Bill Clinton’s bus tours.
Allen decided she would do it, but her mother was skeptical.
Allen had already got some experience quickly spinning her red, white and blue rotary phone while trying to win call-in contests with a Denver radio station.
On the 16th dial, her heart stopped upon hearing a phone ring on the other end. Allen beat out most of the estimated 9 million people who attempted to talk to Carter that day and was the only Wyoming resident to get through to the president during the two-hour show.
“I just kept dialing,” Allen said. “I wasn’t surprised I got through. I just knew somehow I was going to get through.”
And Walter Cronkite, Too
Allen was welcomed into the call by legendary news broadcaster Walter Cronkite.
She had planned to ask Carter about child abuse so that she could ask him a real question, but also didn’t want the president to think she was being abused herself.
Instead, she asked Carter how he dealt with the pressures of the job and if he ever felt “like getting away from it all.”
Allen was well aware of the significance of the moment and had her fair share of “umms” as well as a high-pitched “Mr. President.”
“It was just surreal. I just remember the excitement,” she said.
Carter responded that he did feel this urge sometimes and had already been back once to his home state of Georgia, where he and his wife spent hours hunting for arrowheads.
“We have a chance to hold hands and talk to each other about things, all alone,” Carter said.
He also said they had been to Camp David once as well and found the White House living quarters favorable and private.
Then, Allen pivoted, asking the president if he supports solar heating.
Carter responded that he supported solar heating and wanted to see more research done in this field.
“I think that in years to come you’re going to see, in my administration and from presidents who come after me, a very heavy emphasis on the use of solar power,” he said.
Allen’s house north of Cheyenne that her father had built in an effort to take advantage of tax credits was solar heated at the time, the first of its kind in Wyoming, which the president asked her about.
Allen responded that “it’s been working really good,” but added that the home hadn’t been truly tested yet with a big storm.
After that, Cronkite concluded the conversation and thanked her for calling.
Lay Of The Land
Longtime Wyoming journalist Kerry Drake wrote a story about the call for the Wyoming State Tribune at the time, about a year into his career. Drake, who worked with Allen’s mother and brother, said he was impressed with her maturity at the time.
“She was a very nice young girl, I talked to her on the phone about it,” he said.
Allen said she was spurred to make the call because she “thought it’d be cool to talk to the president.”
Although Carter lost Wyoming by about 30,000 votes, Drake said there was legitimate support for the president in the Cowboy State. One of his sons came to campaign for their father during the 1976 campaign, hosting an event at the Hitching Post in Cheyenne.
“He wasn’t real popular in Wyoming, but it was not as polarized as it is today,” Drake said.
Allen’s father supported Republican Gerald Ford in the election. Carter's one-term presidential tenure was marked by poor economic conditions not unlike what America is facing today, a time of growing inflation, high gas prices and interest rates.
“I think there was so much going on during that time, he had a tough job at that time,” Allen said.
Lasting Impact
Allen said the phone call impacted the rest of her life. She now owns an herbal apothecary in Cheyenne, a business few people believed beforehand would be successful.
“‘This is insane, this is not going to work,’” Allen said many people told her, to which she responded, “just watch me.”
Unfortunately, her classmates at Jessup Elementary were not impressed by the event at the time, mercilessly teasing her and asking if she thought she was a big shot because she spoke to the president, to which she responded she did for being one of the few dozen selected out of the 9 million callers.
Because of the call, she held a personal affinity for the former president that stuck with her for the rest of his life, which was only strengthened by his volunteerism and public service.
Carter engaged in a number of foreign diplomatic trips on behalf of America and preceding presidents, and spent substantial amounts of his free time with his wife volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, a philanthropy that helps low-income working people by building and buying homes for them.
Allen had a few near run-ins with Carter after the call but never got to speak to him again despite making efforts to contact him through his staff.
“He really was my idol, he was really I thought a great human being,” she said. “His faith in God, his work with Habitat for Humanity, some of the things he’d done on the international stage with foreign affairs. He was just a cool guy.”
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
