Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, 96, passed away this afternoon at her home in Plains, Georgia. She had started receiving hospice care just a few days ago. Husband Jimmy, 99, has been receiving hospice care since earlier this year.
I hope he doesn't pass away soon, but long-married people (they were married 77 years, a record for presidential couples) often do pass away within a short time of each other. President Carter often talked about her and considered her his closest advisor. As president, he would often have her attend cabinet meetings, and this created a lot of silly controversy since, after all, First Ladies were supposed to be more obsessed with state dinners and other such trivial bullshit. Not Rosalynn. She was nobody's fool.
One of Roselynn's main interests as First Lady was bringing notice to mental health issues.
The first time I saw her in person was back in 1976, when Jimmy ran successfully for the Democratic presidential nomination. I was in Medford, Oregon, then, just as I am now, and the Oregon primary then made big headlines since the Democratic primary had been hotly contested. Jimmy was supposed to be campaigning here, but he had missed his flight, so Rosalynn came in his place. She was more than up to the task.
I had also seen her in person several times during the 2006 Nevada Senate race, as she, along with the rest of the Carter family, campaigned for their son Jack, who lost the general election to John Ensign, who later had to resign amid a sex scandal.
There was never a better family than the Carter family. There was no phoniness about them. I did meet several family members in person and spoke with them, including the former president.
She had been delivered by Mr. Carter’s mother, a nurse. And a few days later, in a scene that
might have been concocted by Hollywood, his mother took little Jimmy to Rosalynn’s house,
where he “peeked into the cradle to see the newest baby on the street,” as he recalled in his
2015 memoir, “A Full Life, Reflections at Ninety.”
He was not quite 3. Eighteen years would pass before the two would truly connect. But once
they did, they became life and work partners, melding so completely that as president Mr. Carter
would call her “an almost equal extension of myself.”
Reared in the same tiny patch of Georgia farmland, 150 miles south of Atlanta, they were similar
in temperament and outlook. They shared a fierce work ethic, a drive for self-improvement and
an earnest, even pious, demeanor. Their Christian faith was central to their lives. Both were frugal.
Both could be stubborn.
After Mr. Carter lost his re-election bid in 1980 to Ronald Reagan, he and Mrs. Carter embarked
0n what became the longest, most active post-presidency in American history. They traveled the
world in support of human rights, democracy and health programs; domestically, they labored in
service to others, most prominently pounding nails to help build houses for Habitat for Humanity.
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