Jennifer Gray of Savannah, stood near the open doorway of the Original Pinkie Masters, where the cool breeze blew off Harris Street. She held a can of PBR and donned a black t-shirt with emblems of Ruth Bader Ginsburg that spelled out the word VOTE.
She along with hundreds of other patrons raised their glasses around 3 p.m. Monday afternoon to honor the former U.S. president who once stood atop the bar in 1978 to eulogize his friend and former bar owner Luis Christopher Masterpolis. Current Pinkies co-owner and bartender Matt Garappolo gave a toast that lasted about as long as it took most people to take a sip of their drinks. One can’t help but think Carter, an everyman type, would have appreciated the brevity and simplicity.
Gray said Carter was the first president in her memory. She came to Pinkies with her husband and daughter to toast Carter because “he was such a great man and had such longevity.” She called him a humble peacemaker who lived his 100 years as a life of service to others. “The least that we could do is come down and have a beer at Pinkies to celebrate him,” she said.
Her husband Brad Gray recently flew and watched a documentary about Carter while in the air. “I wasn’t actually aware of all the stuff associated with those years when he was president. Women’s rights, conservation, renewable energy—he was way ahead of his time.”
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One of Carter’s ‘iconic places’
Paul Blincoe, Elise Mercer (center), and Mariel Hamer showed up to Pinkie Masters at 3 p.m. on Dec. 30, 2024 to cheers Former President Jimmy Carter in honor of his life just one after news of his passing was shared.
Paul Blincoe enjoys coming to Pinkie Masters and sharing the history of the place and Carter with non-locals. “Every great American political tale has its iconic places like LBJ [Former President Lyndon B. Johnson] and some of the Austin beef steak places where deals got done,” Blincoe said.
The bar also holds a special place for him because it is where he and girlfriend Mariel Hamer met in 2021, during a “fateful 1 a.m. Pinkie Masters encounter,” according to Hamer. She quipped that the bar is where every great night in Savannah ends.
Friend Elise Mercer added with a smirk, “Or begins,” referring to the late Monday afternoon toast to Carter.
Legend, stoked by even Carter himself, has it that his campaigns for governor and president began at Pinkies. During a 2002 interview, he told WTOC-TV as much. Although that was not the likely case, it does build on that old Savannah saw to never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
Jennifer Gray offered that with all the turmoil during Carter’s presidency, it might have been good that his presidential story ended after only one term. She said a second term “would have changed the man and all the good that he did after. It ruins you, the political.”
To all the good former President Jimmy Carter did after and before. To all the good that will continue on in his and his wife Rosalyn Carter’s names.
Cheers.
Joseph Schwartzburt is the education and workforce development reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at JSchwartzburt@gannett.com.
Savannah Morning News content coach and site editor Amy Paige Condon also contributed to this article.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: People packed Savannah’s Pinkie Masters bar to honor Jimmy Carter
