Well-wishers flock to Rosalynn Carter tribute to bid farewell to former U.S. and Georgia first lady
Ross Williams, Alabama ReflectorNovember 28, 2023 This story was originally published on Georgia Recorder. The museum at the Carter Center in Atlanta typically echoes with the oohs and ahhs of tourists and the banter of field tripping schoolchildren, but all was silent Monday night as hundreds of well-wishers walked through the colorful displays to honor a flower-draped casket. Rosalynn Carter, former first lady of Georgia and the United States, is set to make her final journey to her Plains, Georgia home Wednesday after fans across the state and country say farewell. Carter, 96, died at her home Nov. 19 a few days after her family announced she had entered hospice. Her husband of 77 years, former President Jimmy Carter, called her his “equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” and she was widely admired for her decades of advocacy, especially her work on behalf of people with mental illnesses and their caregivers. Mental health advocate Aisha Bryant of Midtown Atlanta said she had the opportunity to meet Carter at Emory University in 2017 through her work with people with autism. She said the former first lady’s humility and kindness stuck with her. “I just remember her being so humble towards me and just everything that she’s done in life, I didn’t expect that she’s just so happy, so calm, the demeanor about herself,” she said. Many people in the crowd had personal stories of encounters with Rosalynn Carter. When she crossed your path, she always made you feel special, said Shellie Stuart, who came to the Carter Center Monday from Lincoln City, Oregon – about 2,700 miles away. Aisha Bryant, left, and Shellie Stuart sign a guest book for former first lady Rosalynn Carter. (Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder) Stuart met the Carters through her work with Friendship Force International, a nonprofit promoting cultural exchange around the world, and accompanied them on travels, including a 2002 diplomatic mission to Cuba. “I was always amazed at how Rosalynn Carter had time for everybody,” she said. “Everybody mattered. Nobody was made to feel less important than anybody else. She was a huge inspiration to me and my friends. We felt that it was important to come here from Oregon, just to pay our respects and be part of this.” John Lang, who made the 10-hour trip from Columbus, Ohio, looked back fondly on the seven or eight Habitat for Humanity projects he accompanied the Carters on in the U.S. and in foreign lands that include India, Haiti, and Thailand. He said he’ll never forget Rosalynn Carter’s beautiful smile, but she was far more than just a pretty face at the president’s side. “She was out there working day in and day out,” he said. “I saw her in 90-degree weather, sweating with all the rest of us. And I think that’s one of the things a lot of people don’t realize, that Mrs. Carter and President Carter actually did the work.” Lang said the former first couple were just as loving and affectionate as they are often described. “They really were always holding hands, just on little short jaunts or going to get something to eat, you know, they would be holding hands, and I thought that was a true recognition of a marriage and that commitment to the other person,” he said. Melissa Danielson of Forsyth said she also worked with Rosalynn Carter as her art registrar in the 1990s. When dignitaries sent the Carters gifts and awards, Danielson would catalog them before Rosalynn Carter would decide where to put them in the Carter Center. “It was a pleasure working for them,” she said. “They were such compassionate people, very humble. She was such a wonderful lady to work for. She’s very down to earth and caring so much about people. My heart goes out to her family right now. I mean, she was a grandmother, great-grandmother. Those are the people that I feel for deeply right now.” Carter’s family members are set to say their goodbyes in a series of private services leading up to her funeral on Wednesday. On Tuesday, invited guests will pay tribute at Glenn Memorial Church at Emory University. According to the Carter Center, every living former first lady is expected to attend – Melania Trump, Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – as is current first lady Jill Biden, who is expected to arrive in Atlanta Tuesday with President Joe Biden. Other notable guests expected to attend include former President Bill Clinton, Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and first lady Marty Kemp, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, and “multiple members of Congress and Georgia elected officials,” according to the Carter Center. On Wednesday, Carter’s motorcade is scheduled to travel the 160 miles south to Plains for a private service at Maranatha Baptist Church, where the Carters worshiped, volunteered, and taught for decades. Members of the public are invited to line the motorcade route down Bond Street and along Ga. 280 in downtown Plains. Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and Twitter. Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Follow Alabama Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.
Carl, Tuberville, and Britt offer condolences for Rosalynn Carter
On Sunday, the Carter Center announced that former First Lady Rosalynn Carter had died. She was 96. Congressman Jerry Carl (R-AL01) said on the social media site X: “Tina and I are thinking of and praying for President Jimmy Carter, plus the many family and friends of First Lady Rosalynn Carter. May she rest in peace.” U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) said on X: “First Lady Rosalynn Carter dedicated her life to service – particularly as a mental health advocate. Much of her work shapes how we address today’s mental health crisis. My prayers go out to President Carter and the Carter family.” U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Alabama) said on X: “Rosalynn Carter lived an incredible life that was wholeheartedly devoted to serving others. She leaves behind a legacy of grace, grit, and goodwill. Our thoughts and prayers are with President Carter and their loved ones.” She is survived by former President Jimmy Carter. President Carter served as President from 1977 to 1981. Carter, at age 99, is the longest-lived President in American history. The former President has been in hospice care for the past several months. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden released a statement on the Passing of Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. “First Lady Rosalynn Carter walked her own path, inspiring a nation and the world along the way,” the Bidens wrote. “Throughout her incredible life as First Lady of Georgia and the First Lady of the United States, Rosalynn did so much to address many of society’s greatest needs. She was a champion for equal rights and opportunities for women and girls; an advocate for mental health and wellness for every person; and a supporter of the often unseen and uncompensated caregivers of our children, aging loved ones, and people with disabilities.” “Above all, the deep love shared between Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter is the definition of partnership, and their humble leadership is the definition of patriotism,” the Bidens continued. “She lived her life by her faith. Time and time again, during the more than four decades of our friendship – through rigors of campaigns, through the darkness of deep and profound loss – we always felt the hope, warmth, and optimism of Rosalynn Carter. She will always be in our hearts. On behalf of a grateful nation, we send our love to President Carter, the entire Carter family, and the countless people across our nation and the world whose lives are better, fuller, and brighter because of the life and legacy of Rosalynn Carter. May God bless our dear friend. May God bless a great American.” To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Rosalynn Carter acclaimed by admirers for her pioneering advocacy for mental health, caregiving
John McCosh, Alabama Reflector November 20, 2023 This story was originally published on Georgia Recorder. Former first lady Rosalynn Carter has died, according to the Carter Center, leaving a rich legacy of championing mental health and women’s rights. She will be buried at the ranch house in Plains she and former President Jimmy Carter built in 1961. She died Sunday just days after the family announced she had entered hospice at the home. Carter was 96. She was married for 77 years to Jimmy Carter, who is now 99 years old and entered hospice early this year. “Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” Jimmy Carter said in a statement on the center’s website. “She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.” Tributes poured in from across the political spectrum Sunday, a testament to her broad popularity that transcended partisan politics and her enduring contributions to causes and charities that stoked her passion. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden on Sunday were at Naval Station Norfolk in Norfolk, Virginia, participating in a Friendsgiving dinner with service members and military families from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the USS Gerald R. Ford. “Time and time again, during the more than four decades of our friendship – through rigors of campaigns, through the darkness of deep and profound loss – we always felt the hope, warmth, and optimism of Rosalynn Carter,” the president said in a statement. “She will always be in our hearts. On behalf of a grateful nation, we send our love to President Carter, the entire Carter family, and the countless people across our nation and the world whose lives are better, fuller, and brighter because of the life and legacy of Rosalynn Carter.’’ Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff said Georgia and the country are better places because of Carter’s contributions. “A former First Lady of Georgia and the United States, Rosalynn’s lifetime of work and her dedication for public service changed the lives of many,’’ Ossoff said. “Among her many accomplishments, Rosalynn Carter will be remembered for her compassionate nature and her passion for women’s rights, human rights, and mental health reform.’’ Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp paid tribute to her, recalling her service as Georgia’s first lady during Jimmy Carter’s term as governor starting in 1971. “A proud native Georgian, she had an indelible impact on our state and nation as a First Lady to both,” Kemp said in a statement. “Working alongside her husband, she championed mental health services and promoted the state she loved across the globe. President Carter and his family are in our prayers as the world reflects on First Lady Carter’s storied life and the nation mourns her passing.’’ Former President Donald Trump said on X that he and his wife, Melania joined in mourning Carter. “She was a devoted First Lady, a great humanitarian, a champion for mental health, and a beloved wife to her husband for 77 years, President Carter,” said Trump. Georgia GOP Congressman Rick Allen posted on the X social media platform: “Rosalynn was a beloved Georgian and dedicated her life to serving others. Our nation will miss her dearly, but her legacy will never be forgotten.” Former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Carter “a saintly and revered public servant” and a leader “deeply driven by her profound faith, compassion and kindness.” Pelosi, a California Democrat, recalled how Carter, while her husband was serving as Georgia governor, was moved by the stories of Georgia families touched by mental illness and took up their cause, despite the stigma of the time. “Later, First Lady Carter served as honorary chair of the President’s Commission on Mental Health: offering recommendations that became the foundation for decades of change, including in the landmark Mental Health Systems Act,” Pelosi said. “At the same time, First Lady Carter was a powerful champion of our nation’s tens of millions of family and professional caregivers.” The eldest of four children, Rosalynn was born at home in Plains on Aug. 18, 1927. One of her best childhood friends was Ruth Carter, Jimmy’s younger sister. Jimmy Carter’s mother, Lillian, was a nurse who treated Rosalynn’s father when he was ill with leukemia. Rosalynn enrolled at Georgia Southwestern College in 1945 after she graduated from Plains High School with honors. Jimmy Carter was home on leave from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis that fall when he asked her to go to a movie. By Christmas, he’d proposed to her, but she turned him down because things were moving too fast for her. He soon asked again, and the couple married at Plains Methodist Church on July 7, 1946, a month after Jimmy graduated from Annapolis. As Jimmy Carter climbed the Navy’s ranks, the couple started a family with sons John William arriving in 1947, James Earl III (“Chip”) in 1950, and Donnell Jeffrey in 1952. Daughter Amy was born in 1967. Carter was accepted into an elite nuclear submarine program, and the young family then moved to Schenectady, N.Y. But when his father fell ill, Jimmy left his commission and moved back to Plains to take care of the family’s peanut business. Rosalynn was an active campaigner during her husband’s political climb, beginning with his run for state senator in the early 1960s. By the time he was elected president in 1976, she vowed to step out of the traditional first lady role. Five weeks after Inauguration Day, the President’s Commission on Mental Health was established with Rosalynn serving as honorary chairperson. The Mental Health Systems Act, which called for more community centers and important changes in health insurance coverage, passed in 1980 at her urging. In 1982, the couple founded the Carter Center in Atlanta, with a mission to “wage peace, fight disease and build hope.” She later founded the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving at the school now known
Jim Zeigler: Jimmy Carter as President vs. as ex-President
After several hospital stays, former President Jimmy Carter has entered hospice care at his home in Plains, Georgia. Hospice is often (but not always) comfort care as a person is dying. Carter, 98, is an example of a person whom I can disagree with politically while liking and admiring him as a human – and in Carter’s case, as a Christian and Bible teacher. In the divisive world we live in, it has become rare for us to be able to think, “I disagree with him politically, but he is a fine person and does a lot of good.” My impression of Carter as President was – weakness. He was weak in responding to the radical Islamicists. He was weak in protecting Americans taken hostage. The radical Islamicists sensed his weakness. They kept American hostages imprisoned until the day Carter left office. As Ronald Reagan was being inaugurated as President to follow Carter, our hostages were being released. And he gave away the Panama Canal. As an ex-President, Carter did a world of good. He was a leader – and a pretty good carpenter – in Habitat for Humanity. Hundreds of formerly homeless are now in homes built in part by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. While an ex-President, he taught his popular Sunday School class in Plains, Georgia, for over 40 years. Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalynn (pronounced rose-a-lynn) were a model for marital integrity. They were married in 1946 – 76 years of marriage. Wow. Jimmy Carter is the longest-living former President. Historians will likely say that Jimmy Carter did more as a former President than any except former President John Quincy Adams, who served in Congress for years until his dying day. Please be in prayer for President Carter, his wife, his family, and all who have loved him in his long life on this earth. He lived an abundant life. Jim Zeigler is the retired State Auditor of Alabama.
Still teaching at 95, Jimmy Carter draws devotees to church
The pilgrims arrive early and from all over, gathering hours before daybreak in an old pecan grove that surrounds a country church. They come, they say, for a dose of simple decency and devotion wrapped up in a Bible lesson. The teacher is the 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter. Nearly four decades after he left office and despite a body that’s failing after 95 years, the nation’s oldest-ever ex-president still teaches Sunday school roughly twice a month at Maranatha Baptist Church in his tiny hometown of Plains in southwest Georgia. His message is unfailingly about Jesus, not himself. The church has only 30 or so members, but as many as 450 people attend any week Carter teaches. About 200 people fill the sanctuary, with pale-green walls and stained glass windows, and others gather in side rooms where the lesson is shown on TVs. It’s nearly impossible to separate even an ex-president from politics, and some come because they’re Democrats who recall voting for Carter when he was elected in 1976. Almost uniformly, they’re dismayed by the tone of President Donald Trump and his Republican administration. But Trump has only been in office since 2017 and Carter has been drawing crowds for years. Those who attended Carter’s most recent lesson on Nov. 3 said they just wanted to be in the presence of someone who seems kind, humble and godly despite having been a world leader. “He’s a role model and an inspiration for both of us both in public service and in faith,” said visitor Doug Kluth. He and his wife Ramona drove 2,400 miles (3,862 kilometers) round trip from their home in Columbus, Nebraska, to see Carter in person. Former President Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter sit as Romona and Doug Kluth, of Nebraska, finish posing for a photo with them John and Sarah Dyer packed their four daughters, ages 2 through 12, into their Honda Pilot for the 1,700-mile (2,736-kilometer) round trip to Plains from suburban Chicago. “To see a man who was once on top of the world choose to spend his twilight years lifting the world higher was inspirational to my family and I,” John Dyer wrote to the church’s pastor in a letter shared with The Associated Press. Carter faced mockery for his Southern Baptist faith in 1976 when he said in a Playboy magazine interview that he was guilty of adultery in his heart because he lusted after women. The soul-baring sentiment paralleled Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount, but it came across as odd and narrow-minded to many. These days, with a twice-divorced president who curses in public and once said he’d never asked God for forgiveness, Carter’s approach to life — with his wife of 73 years, Rosalynn, by his side — seems especially appealing to fans. They say they admire Carter’s work to eradicate disease and monitor elections worldwide; the time he has spent helping build homes as a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity; and his advocacy for food programs and rural health care in his home county. Many were touched by photos of a bruised-but-smiling Carter performing volunteer work after he fell and hit his head in October. So they flock to Plains any week Maranatha Baptist posts on its website or Facebook page that Carter plans to teach. Plains Mayor Boze Godwin directs cars into a pecan grove to park behind Maranatha Baptist Church before dawn. Fray and Susan Carter of Russellville, Alabama, slept overnight in their car in the church parking lot to get a front-row view as Carter taught on his first Sunday back after falling and breaking his pelvis in October. As recently as last year Carter would stand during his 45-minute lesson, but he now uses an electric lift chair at the front of the sanctuary as a concession to age. He breaks into that familiar smile when he raises the seat so he can see the crowd over a wooden lectern. A cross made by Carter, a longtime woodworker, adorns the choir loft. He also made the wooden offering plates, which bear his initials on the bottom. Carter’s lesson this day was on his belief in life after death. He ended the same way he always does, by challenging class members to do one nice thing for somebody over the next month. “That’s what I think would make America a better country. It would make you a better person, right? And a better Christian,” Carter said. “Well, that’s the essence of my Sunday school lesson. Not anything fancy to it. Just some personal things to think about.” Visitors that day included people from multiple U.S. states plus Venezuela and Ecuador. Rarely a week goes by without someone from overseas in the crowd, said the Rev. Tony Lowden, Carter’s pastor. The sun breaks the horizon as guests line up. The church was formed in 1977 from a split when another church refused to accept blacks as members. Lowden was hired in March as Maranatha’s first black pastor. On any given Sunday, Lowden said, the congregation is a “mix of everything.” “It’s a melting pot of people who are looking for faith and looking for something that they can believe in,” Lowden said. After a cancer diagnosis in 2015 and three falls this year, it’s unclear how much longer Carter can continue to teach, but Lowden said he’s welcome as long as he’s able. The crowd on the first Sunday in November included Chet Mulholland, an evangelical Christian from Wisconsin, and Joey and Sabrina Fretwell, faithful churchgoers from conservative Mississippi in the heart of the Deep South. The couple’s daughter attended a Trump rally in Tupelo, Mississippi, just two days before they drove to Plains to see Carter. Sabrina Fretwell, 46, doesn’t really remember Carter’s presidency, but she recalls hours spent listening to her grandparents talk about Carter when she was a girl. That’s one reason she wanted to see the former president, she said, to somehow
