Carter turns 84 this week

ATLANTA, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter will celebrate his 84th birthday this week.

The Carter Presidential Center will mark the former U.S. leader's birthday Wednesday with festivities, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Sunday.

At a recent town hall meeting at Emory University, Carter said among his favorite birthday memories are normalizing relations with China.

"I think that one of the reasons Deng Xiaoping was so eager to cooperate was he thought fate had brought us together in that the People's Republic of China was born on Oct. 1, 1949," Carter said.

Carter said another memory is growing up next door to his wife of 62 years, Rosalynn, in Plains, Ga.

"We were next-door neighbors until she was one year old and I was four years old, and then I moved away from her, but I eventually found her back," Carter said. "So almost all of my birthdays have been very good."

The Carter Presidential Center will offer free admission this week to the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum.

Carter, the 39th U.S. president, will be out of town, spokesman Tony Clark said.