The path to the presidency took a Georgia governor to North Toledo and Jim & Lou’s Bar, known as a political shrine in its largely Polish-American neighborhood.
About 30 years after Jimmy Carter’s visit, rioters looted and burned the tavern in 2005. Lou Ratajski, 86, the proprietor who lived upstairs, was displaced and out of business.
Mr. Carter sent a brief condolence letter.
“Rosalynn and I are concerned about your recent misfortune,” wrote Mr. Carter, whose loyal supporter, longtime local congressman Thomas Ludlow “Lud” Ashley, was a Jim & Lou’s regular.
Mr. Carter started his 1976 run for president as his gubernatorial term wound down. He’d been heralded as a reform-minded governor of the New South — yet was little known nationally.
In 1988, by then-former President Carter and Mrs. Carter spoke at the Toledo Masonic Auditorium as part of the Junior League of Toledo’s Town Hall lecture series. The couple, not even a decade into private life, already were known for advocacy and good works.