Tuesday marked the memorialization of Rosalynn Carter, a matriarch who found her greatest comfort among the poor and vulnerable. She was remembered by a unique assembly of all surviving first ladies of the United States and several presidents, including her husband Jimmy Carter, who is 99 years old.
The memorial service was held on the second day of a three-day public celebration honoring the deceased former first lady and international humanitarian, who passed away on November 19 at the age of 96 at her Plains, Georgia, home. Monday’s ceremonies were held at Atlanta’s Glenn Memorial Church after starting in the Carters’ hometown of Sumter County.
“Mom was the unifying force that saw our family through the highs and lows, as well as the thicks and thins of our family politics,” her son James Earl “Chip” Carter III said.
The former president, who has been receiving home hospice care for ten months and hasn’t been spotted in public since September, reclined in his wheelchair, covered in a blanket that bore the image of his late wife, Chip, and his daughter Amy holding his hands. They had Jeff and Jack, their other sons, flanking them.
According to Paige Alexander, CEO of Carter Center, “he never wants to be very far from her.”
Longtime friends and former president Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden joined them in the front row, along with former First Ladies Melania Trump, Michelle Obama, and Laura Bush, as well as former President Bill Clinton as well as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Together with Georgia’s U.S. senators, Governor Brian Kemp and his wife Marty, Vice President Kamala Harris as well as Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff also paid their respects. The sanctuary was packed with more than a thousand people, including a sizable group of Secret Service agents. Despite being invited, former presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump did not show up.
Rosalynn Carter’s status as a global celebrity was acknowledged during the service, which also highlighted her more private life as a family matriarch who valued simplicity and a strong religious conviction.
Chip Carter stated, “She had met presidents, powerful corporate leaders, celebrities, kings and queens, and other people in authority.” “She said that the people who lived in utter poverty were the ones she enjoyed spending time with and felt the most comfortable with.”
Political heavyweights occupied the pews, but her children, numerous grandchildren, and great-grandchildren took center stage. They surrounded Jimmy Carter, who was grieving as her partner of 77 years rather than as a former president.
Speaking from a variety of life experiences, the speakers included Chip, a son recalling his once-retired, reserved mother coming of age in business and politics; Kathryn Cade, a White House aide who continued to be a close advisor while Rosalynn Carter helped establish The Carter Center and its international reach; Judy Woodruff, a journalist covering the Carter administration; and Amy Carter, who read a love letter her father had written to her mother seventy-five years prior.
“A defining aspect of her life was their partnership and love story,” stated Amy Carter.
As “really just one chapter in a life which was about caring for others,” Cade characterized Rosalynn Carter’s tenure as first lady.
Woodruff remembered Rosalynn Carter as a lobbyist, running a separate campaign from her husband, attending Cabinet meetings, and fulfilling important roles. Among her many accomplishments was being the first presidential adviser to propose Camp David as a negotiation venue between Menachem Begin of Israel and Anwar Sadat of Egypt. The choice resulted in historic agreements for peace between the two nations.
Woodruff stated, “I don’t think there would have been a President Carter without Rosalynn Carter.”
Other than a quick ride in September’s Plains Peanut Festival parade with Rosalynn, where they were only visible through the open windows of a Secret Service vehicle, it was Jimmy Carter’s first public appearance since he was placed in hospice care. While he was present for his wife’s last hours, he refrained from making public appearances at his presidential library and at Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus, the alma mater of Rosalynn Carter.
The former president’s trip to Atlanta, according to Alexander, was “hard,” but “this is her last trip up and it’s probably his, too.” He is resolute.
The Carters were the longest-married presidential couple in American history when they tied the knot in 1946. The longest-serving president is Jimmy Carter, while Rosalynn Carter was the second-longest-serving first lady, outlived only by Bess Truman, who passed away at the age of 97.
Her contributions to the political ascent of her husband and his tenure as Georgia’s governor and 39th president were greatly appreciated. She was praised for her fifty years of advocacy for improved mental health care in America and the removal of stigmas associated with mental illness. She also raised awareness of the tens of millions of Americans who serve as unpaid caregivers in their homes.
Chip Carter remembered how his mother had gotten him into treatment for alcohol and drug abuse.
“I’ve never met a more beautiful woman than my mother,” he remarked. “And visually appealing as well.”
Her grandson Jason Carter made people laugh when he greeted the “lovely husbands” of Jill Biden and Hillary Clinton after praising the “remarkable sisterhood” of the First Ladies present.
As he related family tales, such as the occasion when his grandmother prepared pimento sandwiches and distributed them to passengers on a Delta flight, Jason Carter exclaimed, “She was so down to earth, y’all, it was amazing.”
He said, ‘She loved people. “That granny was kind of cool.”
Near the conclusion of the service, country music superstars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood—who are friends of the Carters family and have since taken over as Habitat for Humanity ambassadors—performed a rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
The funeral for Rosalynn Carter will be held in Plains on Wednesday. The Carter family has been members of Maranatha Baptist Church since the Carters moved back to Georgia following his presidency. The service is by invitation only. Following a private graveside service, she will be buried in a plot that will be shared by the couple and be visible from the front porch of the house they constructed prior to Jimmy Carter’s first political campaign in 1962.