He was President of the United States and Governor of Georgia, but Jimmy Carter always said the “peak” of his life was marrying Eleanor Rosalynn Smith.
Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter were married for over 77 years, longer than any other couple to have resided in the White House.
The former first lady died peacefully at home in Georgia on Sunday, the Carter Center announced. He died at the age of 96, just days after going into hospice care.
“Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I accomplished,” Jimmy Carter said in a statement. “She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalyn was in this world, I always knew I had someone loving and supporting me.”
Rosalynn Carter accompanied her husband when he was installed as the country’s 39th president in 1977 and was his rock of support during the hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Iran that threatened his presidency. He was also his rock of support during the massive landslide reelection defeat. Ronald Reagan, who made him commander in chief for one term.
In the twilight of their enduring love story, 99-year-old Jimmy Carter leaned on his wife once again after announcing in February 2023 that, after a brief hospital stay, he would “spend the rest of my time at home with my wife.” Have decided to spend on. Receive hospice care rather than family and additional medical intervention.”
President Jimmy Carter with his wife Rosalynn Carter takes the oath of office from Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger on the stage in front of the White House in January 1977.
Nick Wheeler/Corbis via Getty Images, file
As both Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter prepared for the end, the couple received plenty of support from their four children, 11 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren.
“They are at peace and – as always – their home is full of love,” the couple’s grandson, Jason Carter, who chairs the Carter Center governing board, wrote in a Twitter post in February when his grandfather made the announcement. Word was that he was going into hospice care. ,
(1945–1962: courtship, marriage and early life together
Jimmy Carter, a one-time Navy submarine commanding officer, who had fallen in love with Rosalynn Smith while a cadet at the United States Naval Academy, often referred to his wife as his “secret weapon” during the campaign and on the campaign trail. Referred to in. In his personal life.
“When I first dated her, the next morning I told my mother, this is the girl I want to marry,” Jimmy Carter told ABC News in July 2021. Their 75th wedding anniversary.
In the same interview, Rosalynn Carter said that when he first proposed to her she turned him down, saying that she had promised him on her father’s deathbed that she would finish college before they married.
Former President Jimmy Carter, center, and his wife Rosalynn, right, and their grandson Jason, planting trees while attending the day’s service with the Georgia delegation at Bicentennial Park in Aurora, Denver.
Hyong Chang/Denver Post via Getty Images, file
“But he persisted and I gave up,” she told ABC News, adding, “Life with Jimmy Carter has been an adventure.”
In a 2015 interview at The Carter Center, the couple’s humanitarian organization, Jimmy Carter reflected on life with his wife, saying, “The best thing I ever did was marry Rosalynn. It was the pinnacle of my life. Is.”
He was born three years apart in the small town of Plains, Georgia, between World War I and the Great Depression. While they had known each other since childhood, and he was her sister Ruth’s best friend, Rosalynn Carter said she did not pay attention to her future husband until she was about 13 years old.
In the 2020 book “What Makes a Marriage Last” by Phil Donahue and Marlo Thomas, Rosalynn Carter states that she fell in love with a photograph of Jimmy Carter that Ruth Carter had on her bedroom wall.
“Until Jimmy Carter called, I didn’t know a single guy I wanted to spend my life with,” she said in the book. But at that time, Jimmy Carter had left the Plains and moved to Annapolis, Maryland, to attend the Naval Academy.
As fate would have it, while returning home on leave from the Naval Academy, Jimmy Carter found himself without a date because his then-girlfriend was at a family reunion, he recalled in “What Makes a Marriage Last”.
He recalled, “I was walking around with my sister Ruth and her boyfriend looking for a date and I picked up Rosalyn in front of the Methodist Church.” “I just felt compatible with her. She was beautiful and innocent, and an echo. We were riding in the rumble seat of a Ford pickup – Ruth and her boyfriend were in the front – and I kissed her on that first date. I remember He clearly is.”
The couple married on July 7, 1946, and traveled the world while he was stationed at various bases, including Pearl Harbor as a submarine officer.
1963–1981: Life in politics
After leaving the Navy in 1953, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter returned to the Plains, where he took over his family’s peanut-growing farm while serving in the Naval Reserve for several years. He became active in the local Democratic Party, protesting racial segregation and supporting the emerging civil rights movement.
In 1963, along with his wife, Jimmy Carter was elected to the Georgia State Senate and in 1970, he campaigned for Governor of Georgia and won. During her time in the Governor’s Mansion, Rosalynn Carter focused on mental health issues, serving on the Governor’s Commission to Improve Services for the Mentally and Emotionally Disabled. She also became her husband’s chief advisor in running the state.
Rosalynn Carter expanded that role in 1975 when her husband ran for the US presidency as a secret candidate, helping him defeat incumbent President Gerald Ford.
During his presidency, Jimmy Carter openly called his wife his “secret weapon” and frequently requested her to sit in on cabinet meetings and even some national security briefings. He credited him for being his confidant during the Camp David Accords and the Iranian hostage crisis.
1981–present: Life after the White House
After his landslide defeat to Ronald Reagan in 1980, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter returned to Plains. Rather than rest on his accomplishments, he threw himself into humanitarian work, becoming involved with Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit group founded in 1976 by a Christian couple named Millard and Linda Fuller, whose stated mission was The idea was to “put God’s love into action” by building homes for those in need.
“Habitat offers a simple but powerful way for people from different backgrounds to come together to achieve the most meaningful things in life. A decent home, yes, but also a real bond with our fellow human beings. A bond What comes with building is the breaking down of walls and barriers,” Jimmy Carter once said.
About 300 volunteers, including former President Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalynn, worked on homes in Baltimore, Maryland and Annapolis on October 5, 2010, as part of a week-long nationwide project with Habitat for Humanity.
The Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images, file
In addition to building homes for the underprivileged around the world, the Carters also shared a mutual love of bird-watching and fly-fishing, even building a fly-fishing pond on their Georgia estate.
In a 2021 interview with ABC News, the Carters were asked how they remained happily married for so many years. Jimmy Carter attributed the longevity of their union to working on projects and hobbies they were both interested in and giving each other space to pursue individual interests.
“We’ve always been deeply immersed in our love for each other,” Jimmy Carter told ABC News in 2021.
In the interview he also revealed that he and his wife used to argue like most couples, but had decided long ago to never go to bed angry with each other.
“Every night we try to make sure that when we go to bed we have completely recovered from all the conflicts during the day,” he said.
