Former President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) covered this Tuesday the 225 kilometers that separate his home in Plains (Georgia) from Atlanta, capital of the southern state, to say goodbye to his wife, Rosalynn Carter, who died on November 19. at 96 years old. Plagued by dementia, the first lady died a few days after announcing that she was going into palliative care. At the tribute, held at the Glenn Memorial Unified Methodist Church, which is part of the Emory University complex, were two of Carter’s successors in the White House, the current president, Joe Biden, and Bill Clinton (1993-2001). , Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as the five living first ladies, a position that Rosalynn Carter profoundly transformed.
Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, Michelle Obama, Melania Trump and Jill Biden accompanied the 99-year-old widower, who attended the service from the front row, sitting in a wheelchair and covered by a blanket woven in tribute to the family. His attendance had been confirmed by the Carter Center, 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, those of his brilliant post-presidency, marked by the search for conflict resolution and for the eradication of diseases such as the Guinea worm, which led him to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
In all of this, Rosalynn Carter was essential: not only did she regularly attend cabinet meetings during her years in Washington – a time in which she became a pioneer in raising awareness about the importance of addressing mental health problems – but who also collaborated closely with her husband when he was governor of Georgia, as well as in all the humanitarian endeavors they undertook together after Ronald Reagan evicted them from the White House. They lost the elections in 1980, after a single and somewhat frustrating mandate.
Since February, when Jimmy Carter announced his decision to pursue palliative care, the couple had appeared in public on rare occasions. The last one was shortly before his birthday, at a peanut fair in Plains, a town where the couple lived for decades in a modest house. There they celebrated their 77th wedding anniversary in July.
It was in that corner of rural Georgia where Rosalynn Carter was born as the eldest of four children in a modest family. Her future mother-in-law was the nurse who helped deliver her baby, and the first lady was a childhood friend of Jimmy Carter’s younger sister, which gives an idea of the extent to which the marriage was known “to everyone.” life”. They began their romantic relationship in 1945, when he was stationed at the Naval Academy in Annapolis (Maryland).
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“Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I accomplished,” the widower said in a statement released the day of his wife’s death. “She gave me wise advice and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew someone loved me and supported me.” She ended up being the second longest-living first lady in American history, only behind Bess Truman, who died in 1982 at age 97. After her death on November 19, a website was created which reviews his legacy and allows messages of condolence and other personal memories to be left.
She is survived by four children (Jack, Chip, Jeff and Amy Lynn), 11 grandchildren, one of whom, Jason, spoke at church Tuesday, and 14 great-grandchildren.
In the ceremony of just over an hour – officiated by the Reverend of Glenn Memorial, Mark Westmoreland, and by the Carters’ personal pastor, Tony Lowden -, the chamber choir of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, among others, performed. with a program that included some of the honoree’s favorite songs, and country stars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, friends of the couple. So much so that when she celebrated her diamond anniversary, the musicians gave them a 1946 Ford. This Tuesday they performed Imagineby John Lennon.
Verbatim tributes were provided by Kathryn Cade, another old friend; journalist Judy Woodruff, who celebrated that the occasion had served to bring together political rivals; and two of the children, Amy Lynn and James Chip Carter, president of the board of trustees of the Carter Center.
He made the audience laugh on several occasions (“she was always fun to be with,” he said) and also recalled how his mother “saved his life” when she helped him recover from his “alcohol and drug addiction.” “I used to say that a leader is someone who takes people where they want to go, but only a great leader takes people where they need to go,” he added during his speech. “Losing the 1980 election was devastating for all of us. My parents were still young, my mother was only 53 years old and I felt that she still had a lot to contribute. They decided that they would become missionaries. They set up the Carter Center together. That allowed him [a ella] continue fighting the stigma of mental illness and both, help the poorest of the poor on Earth, just as Jesus had 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 the Maranatha Baptist Church, which had the couple among his parishioners. She will then be buried at the nearby Jimmy Carter National Historical Park, where the former president plans to be buried when his time comes.
In Atlanta, his words arrived on Tuesday 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. She said, “Every time I’ve been away from you, I get excited when I come back and discover 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 sweetheart. See you tomorrow. “Jimmy.”
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