Former President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) traveled this Tuesday the 225 kilometers that separate his home in Plains (Georgia) from Atlanta, the capital of the southern state, to visit his wife Rosalynn Carter, who died on November 19th say goodbye to 96 years old. The first lady, who was plagued by dementia, died just days after announcing she was entering palliative care. The tribute, held at Glenn Memorial Unified Methodist Church, part of the Emory University complex, was attended by two of Carter’s White House successors, current President Joe Biden and Bill Clinton (1993-2001). , Vice President Kamala Harris and the five living first ladies, a position that profoundly changed Rosalynn Carter.
Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, Michelle Obama, Melania Trump and Jill Biden joined the 99-year-old widower, who attended the service from the front row, sitting in a wheelchair and covered in a blanket woven as a tribute to the family. His participation had been confirmed by the Carter Center, which is dedicated to honoring the achievements of the four years in the White House of the thirty-ninth President of the United States and, almost more so, his brilliant post-presidency, marked by the search for conflict resolution and the eradication of diseases such as Guinea worm, which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
The military honor guard transports Rosalynn Carter’s coffin from the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum to the church where the funeral service took place this Tuesday in Atlanta.ERIK S. LESSER (EFE)
In all of this, Rosalynn Carter was crucial: not only did she regularly attend Cabinet meetings during her years in Washington—during which time she became a pioneer in raising awareness of the importance of treating mental health problems—but she also worked closely with them together husband when he was governor of Georgia, as well as in all the humanitarian efforts they undertook together after Ronald Reagan drove them out of the White House. They lost the 1980 election after a single and somewhat frustrating term.
Since Jimmy Carter announced his decision to seek palliative care in February, the couple had made few public appearances. The last time was just before his birthday at a peanut market in Plains, a town where the couple lived in a modest home for decades. They celebrated their 77th wedding anniversary there in July.
It was in this corner of rural Georgia that Rosalynn Carter was born, the eldest of four children of a modest family. Her future mother-in-law was the nurse who assisted at her birth, and the First Lady was a childhood friend of Jimmy Carter’s younger sister, giving a sense of how much the couple had known each other “all their lives.” They began theirs romantic relationship in 1945 while stationed at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
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Joe and Jill Biden, this Tuesday in Atlanta. EVELYN HOCKSTEIN (Portal)
“Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I accomplished,” the widower said in a statement released on the day of his wife’s death. “He gave me wise advice and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew that someone loved and supported me.” In the end, she was the second longest-living first lady in United States history, behind only Bess Truman, who died in 1982 at the age of 97. Following his death on November 19, a website was set up to reflect his legacy and allow people to leave messages of condolence and other personal memories.
She leaves behind four children (Jack, Chip, Jeff and Amy Lynn), 11 grandchildren, one of whom, Jason, spoke at church Tuesday, and 14 great-grandchildren.
The ceremony, which lasted just over an hour and was led by Reverend of Glenn Memorial Mark Westmoreland and the Carters’ personal pastor, Tony Lowden, included performances by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chamber Choir. with a program that included some of the honoree’s favorite songs as well as country stars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, friends of the couple. So much so that the musicians gave them a 1946 Ford to mark their diamond jubilee. This Tuesday they played “Imagine” by John Lennon.
Literal tributes were paid by Kathryn Cade, another old friend; journalist Judy Woodruff, who celebrated that the event served to bring political rivals together; and two of the children, Amy Lynn and James Chip Carter, president of the Carter Center Board of Trustees.
Three images of Rosalynn Carter taken during her years in the White House (1977-1981).
He made the audience laugh several times (“She was always fun to be with,” he said) and also recalled how his mother “saved his life” when she helped him get away from his “alcohol – and drug addiction” to recover. “I have always said that a leader is someone who gets people where they want to go, but only a great leader gets people where they need to go,” he added during his speech. “The 1980 election defeat was devastating for all of us. My parents were still young, my mother was only 53, and I felt like I still had a lot to contribute. They decided to become missionaries. Together they founded the Carter Center. That made it possible for him [a ella] We continue to fight the stigma of mental illness and help the poorest of the poor on earth, just as Jesus taught them.”
The first lady’s farewell, which began Monday with the installation of a memorial chapel at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, will continue this Wednesday in Plains with a private funeral at Maranatha Baptist Church, whose parishioners included the couple . She will then be buried in the nearby Jimmy Carter National Historical Park, where the former president plans to be buried in due course.
In Atlanta on Tuesday, his words arrived through an intermediary in the form of a love letter he wrote to his wife 75 years ago and which Amy Lynn, their daughter, read. It said: “Every time I have been away from you, I look forward to coming back and discovering how wonderful you are. I try to convince myself that you really can’t be as sweet and beautiful as I remember you. But when I see you, I fall in love again. Does it seem strange to you? Not me. Bye darling. See you in the morning. “Jimmy.”
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