Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter died with her family by her side at her home in Plains, Georgia on Sunday, according to a statement by The Carter Center. She was 96.
The wife of the 39th President of the United States died after she was admitted to hospice care on Friday.
“Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” President Carter said. “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.”
She is survived by her husband, her four children, 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
ROSALYNN CARTER CELEBRATES 96TH BIRTHDAY WITH HUSBAND JIMMY CARTER, PEANUT BUTTER ICE CREAM AND BUTTERFLIES
Born Eleanor Rosalynn Smith on Aug. 18, 1927, in Plains, Georgia, she was the oldest of four children in the family of Allethea Murray Smith and Wilburn Edgar Smith.
When she was 13, her father died and her mother became a dressmaker to help support her family. Carter worked alongside her mother and helped take care of her young siblings.
After completing high school, she enrolled in Georgia Southwestern College at Americus. In 1945, after her freshman year, she first dated Jimmy Carter, who was home from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland.
“She’s the girl I want to marry,” President Carter reportedly told his mother after his first date with Rosalynn Smith, who had grown up as a friend and neighbor of the Carter family in Plains.
The couple married in July 1946.
JIMMY CARTER HAD ONE OF THE ‘GREATEST SECOND ACTS’ IN AMERICAN HISTORY, CONSERVATIVE HISTORIAN SAYS
A biography of Carter credited to the White House Historical Association describes her “quiet, friendly manner” which made her “an effective campaigner” for her husband.
As first lady of Georgia and later the United States, Carter worked tirelessly to create what she called “a more caring society,” a biography by The Carter Center, a nonprofit she and Jimmy Carter co-founded in…
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