simple and elegant

the peanut farmer's wife

Just yesterday reports of Rosalynn Carter, the 96 year old mate of former president Jimmy Carter, entering hospice care circulated. Married for seventy-five years, the Carters acknowledged six months ago that she had dementia, that cruel thief afflicting so many couples. Reports yesterday also noted Mr. Carter knew of the hospice care which he entered in late February of this year.

This afternoon, the former First Lady passed away, severing their bond born in the immediate aftermath of World War II.

Rosalynn Carter, on the surface, could not be much different from some of her successors—or her predecessors. She was not remote but seemingly a rather approachable figure who served fully in the two Carter presidential runs, in 1976 and 1980. She also was at his side in a deeply meaningful post-White House life of more than forty years. I never met her but could see in televised interviews she genuinely was involved in details of his life and passions as he was with hers.

The first years of their marriage immediately upon his graduation from the Naval Academy in 1946 were as a submariner’s wife. The Carter family included three sons born while the future president served as a junior officer during the initial years of the Cold War. Her Navy wife’s role was largely focused on family matters but as Jimmy’s career evolved after the Navy, she became a, if not the primary campaign confidante. That unique bond between them was an interweaving of all aspects of their lives, in politics and everything else.

Their daughter was born in 1967, almost a generation after their sons, meaning mothering a youth in the public eye. Carter’s avowed concern, however, was to help the nation more fully accept that mental health matters to and for all of us. She carried through his presidency periodically reintroducing the problem. In an era when wives were shunted into completely background roles (not all that different today) as First Ladies as if statuettes, Carter had limited effect on policy but continued raising the problem repeatedly.

She was a woman of profound faith, something she lived in the public more than anyone earlier in my lifetime. The Carters were ‘born again’ Christians who brought their beliefs into the presidency is a manner matched only by George W. Bush during the modern era. They openly discussed religious views while in the White House, then brought relevant actions and ethos to the Carter Center at Emory University which has been a global leader in practical improvement in people’s lives. Rosalynn Carter was deeply involved in programs around the globe such as

African election monitoring or rare disease amelioration programs. In an era of ostentation, she was fairly simple and direct.

Rosalynn Carter passed away in Plains, Georgia this afternoon.

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