Former first lady Rosalynn Carter – Georgia-born humanitarian, mental health champion and wife of 39th President Jimmy Carter – died on Sunday at the age of 96.
A statement from the Carter Center said Rosalynn died peacefully at home, with her family by her side.
“Rosalynn has been my equal partner in everything I’ve accomplished,” President Carter said.
“He gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew someone loved and supported me.”
His family announced in May 2023 that he had been diagnosed with dementia and he later joined the former president in hospice care at their Plains home in November.
Governor Kathy Hochul also offered her condolences in a post on social media Sunday afternoon.
“Rosalynn Carter lived a life of service to her community and to our country,” the fellow Democrat wrote in X. “New York joins the Carter family in mourning her loss.”
Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) said, “Throughout her life Rosalynn Carter dedicated herself to serving others.
Former first lady Rosalyn Carter dies at 96.Getty Images
“As First Lady she served our country with grace and kindness. My heart goes out to his love of more than 75 years, President Carter and their family today.”
Eleanor Rosalynn Smith was born in the small town of Plains, Georgia — the same town as her future husband — on August 18, 1927, and was the eldest of four children.
When she was just 13, her father died of leukemia, forcing her mother to work as a dressmaker to support her children, according to her official White House biography.
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter married in 1946 after being longtime family friends. Getty Images
Despite having to help out at home as the eldest daughter, Carter continued her studies and graduated from college and eventually from Georgia Southwestern College.
She had her first date with Jimmy Carter, an old family friend, in 1945 while he was returning from the Naval Academy in Annapolis.
“She’s the girl I want to marry,” Jimmy Carter told his mother after his first visit with 17-year-old Rosalynn.
President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter dance at the White House Congressional Ball in 1977. Universal Images Group via Getty Images Jimmy Carter told his mother he wanted to marry Rosalynn after their first date in 1945. Photo by Karl Schumacher – White House via CNP /Getty Images
They were married in 1946, and after moving to several cities to support Jimmy’s career in the Navy, settled back in the Plains after his father died in 1953 and took control of the family’s bean farm, where Rosalynn managed the accounts.
She helped Jimmy’s political campaign for the Georgia state Senate in 1962, his gubernatorial bid for governor in 1970 and finally his run for the White House in 1977.
As first lady, she was a powerful presence in the White House – dubbed by the DC Press as the “Steel Magnolia” because of her unique strength mixed with the stereotypical grace of a Southern political wife.
She expanded the role of first lady, working in her own office in the East Wing, with her own staff, on her own initiative. He also attended top-level meetings with presidential advisers, raising eyebrows among the capital’s elite.
Carter was born on August 18, 1927 in Plains, Georgia. Photo by Diana Walker/Getty Images Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976. Corbis via Getty Images The Carters at a puppet show in Atlanta with their daughter Amy during Jimmy’s presidential campaign. Bettmann Archives
Carter biographer Jonathan Alter told the Associated Press that Rosalynn was a silent presence at most cabinet meetings, listening intently to give Jimmy good advice.
She launched her own agenda to praise her husband’s dedication to the underprivileged, including campaigning for those with disabilities, women’s rights issues and, most famously, to push society’s stigma around mental health issues.
He served as honorary chairman of the President’s Commission on Mental Health, which worked to pass the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980.
Rosalynn Carter spent her life supporting mental health awarenessGetty Images The Carters will celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary in their hometown of Plains, Georgia, in 2021.REUTERS
Alter said she considered her active role as first lady comparable to that of Eleanor Roosevelt and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but noted that her relationship with her husband seemed less strained than others.
Rosalynn’s activism continued after she left the White House in 1981. She founded the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers in 1987, which promotes the mental health and well-being of family caregivers.
She authored five books, including her 1984 autobiography she wrote with her husband about their life after politics, “First Lady of the Plains; Everything to Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life.”
Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter work on a house in Baltimore, Maryland on Oct. 5. 2010 for Habitat for Humanity.EPA/MICHAEL REYNOLDS Rosalynn Carter speaks at a Habitat for Humanity construction site in Memphis on November 2, 2015.AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File The Carters attend the inauguration of then-President-elect Donald Trump on January 20, 2017. PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP via Getty Images Rosalynn Carter with President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden during a visit at her home in Plains on April 29, 2021. Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Rosalynn entered home hospice care at the couple’s old home in Plains on Nov. 17, 2023, nearly nine months to the day Jimmy did after he had a series of hospital stays.
The couple “spend time with each other and their family,” their grandson Jason Carter said, in an announcement released by the Carter Center.
The Carters made a rare public appearance at the Peanut Plains Festival on September 23, 2023, just days before the former commander-in-chief’s 99th birthday. The video shows them rolling through town in the back of a black SUV.
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
