Former US First Lady Rosalynn Carter has died. The 96-year-old wife of former President Jimmy Carter died on Sunday afternoon (local time) in her hometown of Plains, Georgia, “peacefully in the company of her family.” ,” said one of the foundations founded by the Carters. “Rosalynn has been my equal partner in everything I have ever accomplished,” Jimmy Carter, 99, said, according to the foundation.
“As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew that someone loved and supported me,” said the former president. In May, it became public that Rosalynn Carter was suffering from dementia. The foundation only announced on Friday that the 96-year-old man was receiving palliative care at home. Jimmy Carter has also been receiving hospice care at home with his family since mid-February.
Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter married in 1946 – the couple have four children. The former first lady campaigned on social issues and wrote several books. She is said to have had a significant influence on White House policy during her husband’s presidency. The Democratic politician from the state of Georgia, in the southern United States, was US president from 1977 to 1981, until he was replaced by Republican Ronald Reagan.
Carter is the oldest living former US president. No other of the 45 presidents lived to a ripe old age and none was a former president for as long as he was. The Georgia peanut farmer also survived several serious illnesses, including skin cancer that had metastasized to his brain and liver.
Rosalynn Carter was born Eleanor Rosalynn Smith in 1927 in Plains, a small rural town in Georgia. Similar to Jimmy Carter, she comes from humble beginnings. Her father died of cancer when she was a child and her mother supported the family as a seamstress. In 1945 she met her future husband Jimmy Carter, a family friend – and the two were married soon after. Rosalynn Carter later worked in the Carters’ peanut operation. When Jimmy Carter began his political career, she supported him. “The campaign was fun. I was able to travel and see the entire country,” she once said.
The couple were viewed with skepticism in the US capital, Washington, because of their humble roots. “She was widely known for her political acumen and was particularly praised for her electoral sensitivity, down-to-earth nature and her work for the White House, including as an envoy to Latin America,” wrote US broadcaster CBS about the former prime minister. lady. . According to observers, she significantly shaped the role of the first lady in the US. She accompanied her husband on several international trips and was also present at important appointments with the then president.
Later, she became particularly involved in the area of mental health and is considered a pioneer in the fight for better treatments. “She will be greatly missed not only by our family, but also by many people who today have better mental health care and access to caregiving resources,” her son Chip said in response to his mother’s death. In 1999, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the highest civilian honors. Her husband was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
The Carters were married for 77 years and were considered a close couple. In winter, the couple’s foundation made it public that the former president no longer wanted to take any further medical measures after a series of hospital admissions. In September, the two surprised everyone with a public appearance at a peanut parade in Plains. They appeared in a dark limousine passing through the small town.