In the late 1970s, a one-term Georgia governor from the small rural southern town of Plains, Georgia, decided to take his particular style of politics to the national stage. The little-known peanut farmer had so little name recognition that the Atlanta Constitution jokingly printed a story about him with the title “Jimmy Who Is Running for What!?”
By 1976, as Jimmy Carter was still in the beginning of his ultimately successful presidential campaign, he and his small staff added a four-legged unofficial member. A stray dog showed up at The Plains Train Depot that served as the 39th president’s campaign headquarters, and though he did very little actual work around the office, quickly became one of their most beloved volunteers.
Affectionately named “J-Who” (as in Jimmy Who?), the scruffy stray turned into an unlikely mascot of the Plains campaign. And while he was never officially adopted, J-Who never went hungry from that day forward. J-Who was in fact well fed, well loved, and well photographed for the duration of his life.
Upon his death in 1986, J-Who “The Depot Dog” was laid to rest not far from where he spent the majority of his living days. His grave marker is just on the other side of Hudson Street from the train depot, along the railroad tracks he called home in downtown Plains.
