PLAINS — The Jimmy Carter National Historic Site’s Presidents’ Day Celebration began in the warm hallways of the Old Plains High School on a chilly, rainy South Georgia Saturday. Dr. Laurence Cook exhibited items from his private collection of presidential memorabilia before puzzling the audience with some of the less well-known anecdotes of presidential lives.

Cook frequently lectures groups on various aspects of presidential history. He has been a life-long collector of presidential memorabilia. He is a presidential historian with an expansive collection of Theodore Roosevelt campaign and presidential material.

His firms, Cook and Cook Antiques and Home Furnishings Inc. and Cook and Cook Estate Liquidators, are leaders in presidential antiquities. In April 2011, Cook organized and conducted the Plains Helping Plains Auction in Plains, Pa.,  to benefit the Plains Better Hometown Program in the hometown of President Jimmy Carter.

His wife, Diane, an avid collector of memorabilia on Rosalynn Carter, greeted visitors Saturday beneath the portrait of the former first lady. History buffs and traveling families asked the Cooks questions about the display in the lobby of the National Historic Site.

Special guest Joe Wiegand, regarded by many as the nation’s premiere Theodore Roosevelt reprisor, roamed the exhibit area in full regalia. He jostled among the visitors with a jocular repertoire of Rough Rider tales in an uncanny impersonation of the colorful president.

He brought Roosevelt to life with a grasp of history that convinced the guests that they were hearing first-hand tales of African safaris, an exploration of Amazon River jungles and building the Panama Canal.

Wiegand settled with the rest of the guests into the folding seats in the charming school house auditorium for Cook’s lecture. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were greeted by an onrush of admirers as they made their way down the aisle. They warmly welcomed visiting families to Plains and patiently posed for snapshots.

National Park Service Ranger Steve Theus introduced Cook’s Amazing Presidential Facts, Coincidences and Unique Relationships. His narrative of presidential history illustrated odd facts in the back-stories of each President from George Washington to Barack Obama.

Cook said, “It is an honor to kick off Presidents’ Day weekend speaking on my favorite subject. It is good to see President and Mrs. Carter. I am honored that you are here to see me speak.”

He thanked the National Park Service for bringing the event to Plains.

“I became intrigued with presidential coincidences when I was three years old and given a penny strip,” he said before launching into an entertaining presentation. “George Washington was the only president unanimously elected by the Electoral College and he never lived in the White House.”

However his wife Martha was a wealthy widow who owned an estate called the “White House.” Cook listed many coincidences with the date July 4, some fortuitous and many with less happy outcomes.

He told of Andrew Jackson’s claim to being the only president who killed a man in a duel. His opponent fired first and struck Jackson, “who just stood there.” He explained the complicated ritual of dueling and noted that Jackson could have fired into the air. Jackson was also the first to experience an assassination attempt. While attending a congressional funeral, an assailant emerged from the crowd.

“The man pulled a pistol. It misfired and Jackson rushed the guy with a cane. He gets to the guy and he pulls another gun which also misfires,” Cook said.

Among those helping to subdue the assailant was Congressman Davy Crockett. In 1833, Jackson appointed Abraham Lincoln Postmaster.

The audience was amazed by a story of President Lincoln’s son Robert’s accident when returning home from college in New Jersey.

“He fell into the pit onto the tracks and was helped out by a bystander. That man was Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth.”

Cook listed several presidents who dropped or changed parts of their names, including Hiram Ulysses Grant, who wished to shed the initials H.U.G. for his tenure in military school. Grant once received a reprimand for his appearance during the Mexican War by a commanding officer named Robert E. Lee. Cook described conditions that did not promote the tidiest of campaign wear and speculated on the influences this dressing down may have had on the gentlemen’s later historic encounter.

Wiegand laughed when Cook told that Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest man to become president, while John F. Kennedy was the youngest to be elected president. Cook noted that Roosevelt’s mother was “a true southern belle” from the Bulloch family.

“Carter is the only president to write a book, to promote human rights, peace, and disease eradication. He helped wipe out the guinea worm, which was the second disease in history to be eliminated,” Cook said.

Carter is one of two presidential artists.

“Dwight Eisenhower painted and sold paintings. Carter is the only president to auction off his own work,” Cook said, referring to Carter’s participation in the fund raising auction for Plains Better Hometown.

“Reagan was the first to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court. George W. Bush is the descendent of two presidents, his father and Franklin Pierce. Obama was also the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review.”

Cook closed the jovial romp through history with the observation, “many lived to be president and many died being president.”

As Theodore Roosevelt, Wiegand led a standing ovation for Cook which reverberated around the polished, bunting-draped auditorium. He marched to the foot of the stage and shared stories from a lifetime of Roosevelt’s service — ranging from cowboy adventures to the charge of the cavalry, to finding the grave of John Paul Jones.

“You are an inspiration,” he intoned to President Carter, gesturing hat in hand and referring to the Nobel Peace Prize.

He joked with President Carter about “their” common experiences with the Panama Canal and southern heritages. Carter shared that Bulloch Hall is next door to his own aunt’s home.

Wiegand responded that “if it were not for the infusion of southern blood, I would have been a boring Dutch businessman. I was the first to fight against Wall Street. When I went on a hunting trip, one was quoted as toasting ‘to the lions, may they do their jobs.’”

Wiegand’s business card quotes Roosevelt beside his look-alike portrait: “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

He paced about the auditorium, boots echoing and declining a microphone, relating an adventure with a failed Mississippi bear hunt involving “three days in a cane break on the delta.” The hunting guide rounded up a bear that killed two dogs before the guide “broke a gun over the bear’s head.” The guide roped the bear with a lariat and tied him to a tree. Roosevelt was appalled by the unsportsmanlike conduct, which led to his founding of the Boone and Crockett Fair Hunting Act.

Cartoons lampooning Roosevelt’s refusal to shoot the tethered bear led a toy company to launch a national line of stuffed bears named after him. The Roosevelt reprisor delighted the McCullough family when he pulled a Teddy Bear from the ferns at the edge of the stage. The audience applauded as he presented it to 11-year-old Adrian, nine-year-old Jenna, and five-month-old Jarret.

The McCulloughs joined other guests crowding around the Carters and Wiegand to pose for photographs. The Cooks and the National Park rangers took questions from guests touring the display of presidential memorabilia in the hallway of the old school.

Adrian, Jenna, and Jarret sat in the Presidential Chair with their stuffed bear, now named T. R. and already cherished. Brooke McCullough and her husband Jason were traveling to Andersonville from their home in Fort Benning in pursuit of the girls’ Junior Ranger Badges. They stopped in Plains to collect more badges.

Many National Parks offer visitors the opportunity to join the National Park Service family as Junior Rangers. The McCulloughs complete a series of activities during their park visits, share their answers with a park ranger, and receive an official Junior Ranger badge or patch and Junior Ranger certificate. Young Jarret received a Ranger Pin and his sisters pinned it to his overalls while he propped on the Presidential Desk.

Jenna clutched T.R. while she and Adrian listed the parks they had visited, stretching across all corners of the United States.

“If you get 10 badges, you are a Junior Ranger,” Jenna said over T.R.’s ears. “Me and my sister passed 10,” red-headed Jenna grinned.

Adrian flipped through her Ranger Passport, showing stamps she received and telling stories about the interesting things she and Jenna enjoyed at each park. The girls have collected 25 badges from Mount Rushmore, the Capulin Volcano, Liberty Square, and Mammoth Cave. Their Ranger Passports have stamps from the birthplace of Ulysses Grant, Brown v. Wade, Fort Sumter, the Charleston Light, Jefferson National Expansion Arch, Fort Larned and Fort Moultrie. And of course the new stamps they collected on their Presidents’ Day weekend adventure.

For more information about Wiegand and the T.R. Tour, visit www.teddyrooseveltshow.com. For more information about events at The National Park Service’s Jimmy Carter National Historic Site, call 229-824-4104.