RIP Rosalynn Carter, 96
Ninety-six is a formidable age, and Rosalynn Carter made the most of her long life:
Mrs. Carter was married for 77 years to Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States and the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, who is now 99 years old.
“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 children — Jack, Chip, Jeff, and Amy — and 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. A grandson died in 2015.
“Besides being a loving mother and extraordinary First Lady, my mother was a great humanitarian in her own right,” said Chip Carter. “Her life of service and compassion was an example for all Americans.
I can’t say that I followed her life very closely. But my impression was always of a steel magnolia type, soft-spoken but very very strong. RIP.
The married for 77 years never fails to amaze me.
Like most individuals, she was a mixed bag. I always found both Carters to be smug and sanctimonious, but I am not sure how much of that was due to the media. Back in those days, when the media didn’t like you, your party affiliation wouldn’t necessarily let you off the hook. I think part of the problem for the Carters was (a) Jimmy got along poorly with Congress and I am sure there were people, even in his own party, who were only too happy to talk off the record, and (b) the Carters did not serve alcohol at any of the White House dinners IIRC, which of course got them branded as sticks-in-the-mud and no fun.
I did enjoy Dan Ayckroyd’s spoofs of Carter on SNL.
I am reminded of Lady Bird and LBJ. I once said that one of the best decisions LBJ made was to marry Lady Bird. One could similarly say that one of the best decisions Jimmy Carter made was to marry Rosalynn. Seventy seven years married- that is amazing.
But my impression was always of a steel magnolia type, soft-spoken but very very strong. RIP.
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Close to Midge Costanza’s description of her, based on personal observation.
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IIRC, Rosalynn’s father died fairly young, leaving a widow and four children. Rosalynn was the oldest and crucial to her mother’s efforts to provide for the family. Pat Nixon had to grow up fast in this way as well.
Seventy seven years married- that is amazing.
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Most amazing. I think their children have four divorces between them.
77 years…excellent target to aim for.
We’re almost halfway there…well 44% of the way there.
Odd trivia note…back in my stupid years (before marriage) I was arrested in the same mob as Amy Carter. Interesting what you learn when you’re misguided & young & by God’s grace find someone old enough to teach you better.
Gringo, I’ll concede your reasoning for comparing the two couples. Both men went much further in life than they would have if they’d married differently. But that’s where any similarities end.
In my worthless opinion only.
I didn’t vote for Carter but wanted to like him. A fellow Naval Officer, and a man who worked for Admiral Rickover had to be a good leader. I hoped so. Didn’t work out that way.
That said, I think he and Rosalynn have tried to do good works where they could. I salute them for their long marriage and partnership.
He entered hospice care about nine months ago and is still hanging on. Now that Rosalynn has passed on, his will to live may be less.
May she RIP.
Jerry, agreed. Both married better persons than they were.
On due consideration, one similarity between Carter and LBJ is that both had massive foreign policy failures, to which I responded in a similar fashion.
I had supported LBJ for President in 1964. I was a senior in high school when LBJ announced that he wouldn’t run. That spring my school held a mock presidential poll. Who was running? Eugene McCarthy, RFK, Humphrey, Nixon, Rockefeller, Romney… I voted for Harold Stassen, the “boy wonder” Governor of Minnesota in the 1930s, as in “none of the above.” ( I gave Stassen his only vote in the school poll.)
I was neither uninterested in nor ignorant of politics. I LOVED an Introduction to Politics class I took my freshman year. My vote indicated a profound disgust with politicians that year. (I didn’t have quite the take on Vietnam as my liberal classmates, perhaps influenced by my unrequited crush on a girl whose mother had fled Mao’s China. LBJ screwed the pooch.. )
Similarly in 1980, I voted 3rd party for President, after having voted for Carter in 1976 and McGovern in 1972.
Today, yellow dog Republican.
Jew hater. Period.
He entered hospice care about nine months ago
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They had nursing care at home. They weren’t in a hospice.
Art Deco:
Most people who have hospice care are living at home. A hospice worker comes periodically to help out. If a person doesn’t die in 6 months, it can be renewed at a doctor’s say-so.
J.J.:
During his retirement, Jimmy Carter did some very bad work around Israel.
Most people who have hospice care are living at home.
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My father’s nursing care was given that label. He was a terminal patient, lasted four months, and was bedridden the whole time. That’s not Carter’s situation.
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did some very bad work around Israel.
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Bad books. Not sure the good works agencies with which he was associated are active in the West Bank or Gaza. The inflammatory volume he published in 2007 was issued seven years after Yasir Arafat had blown up the Oslo process and started the 2d intifada. The man was often immune to data.
Jew hater. Period.
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That was Desmond Tutu. Didn’t appear to bother Carter.
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The whole ‘The Elders’ project was chuckle-worthy in its pretension.
Neo, I said they “tried’ to do good works. Not that they succeeded.
His dislike/hatred for Jews was pretty apparent. Not sure why other than Sowell’s observation – they are too successful and don’t knuckle under easily.
His dislike/hatred for Jews was pretty apparent.
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Israel was willing to defend itself with force and was (and is) run by people who are not craven and do not have much time for the talking cure. Israel was also able to marshal enough support in Congress to prevent Carter from using sticks to induce them to comply with his agenda. After 1978, they told the social worker his services were not beneficial and thus not needed.
yes the Blood of Abraham was trash, i think that was the title,
Carter had very little to do with the Camp David Accords, if was the Saudi spymaster Adham that pushed Sadat into pacting with BEgin,
My brother and I were the hospice team when my father died. It took 10 days. I personally administered every drug for the last 10 days of his life and was monitoring his pulse when he died. The hospice nurses came by each day to bring us supplies and see how we were doing, and his doctor came to see him twice. The last time on Wednesday and told us my father would die Friday. Everything progressed over those 10 days exactly like he said it would. Hardest thing I have ever done.
God bless you, Chases Eagles. I’m sure your father passed with immense pride in his sons!
Re: Presidential marriages
After I learned the story I’ve become sentimental about Richard and Pat Nixon.
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Dick fell in love with Pat the first night he met her as they were trying out at a community theater for roles in the play Dark Shadows.
Pat was interested in Dick, but she was initially reluctant to make commitments to anyone. With the same strategic brilliance and will power he used to win seven elections, Dick courted Pat for two years until she was ready to get married. He hated ice skating and bloodied himself repeatedly, learning to stand upright on skates so that he could spend time with Pat and her friends. In the spring of 1940, he parked his car by the edge of a cliff overlooking a romantic cove. He proposed and she accepted. He considered marrying her the best decision of his life.
–“Richard and Pat Nixon: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Their Marriage”
https://parade.com/249558/parade/richard-and-pat-nixon-10-things-you-didnt-know-about-their-marriage/
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Before her marriage Pat Nixon was a beautiful young woman from a hardscrabble family who turned down an opportunity to act in a movie. To get through school, among other temp jobs, she worked part-time as a movie extra and a model.
Initially she wasn’t keen on Nixon as a suitor, but his old-fashioned persistence in pursuing her eventually won her over.
Nixon was a far more interesting, sympathetic fellow than his image in the press.
J.J.:
I think both Carters actually accomplished good deeds. But regarding Israel and the Jews, I wouldn’t say that Jimmy Carter was trying when he wrote Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid.
I’ve never read “Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid.” And lots of other books. 🙁 Them title sounds like some of the slogans the anti-Israel activists are throwing around. So, I get the gist.
Chases Eagles, thanks for sharing your hospice care experience.
“Hardest thing I’ve ever done.” You two brothers are a tribute to your fat her. Well done.
RIP, but Meh, “I really don’t care”.
}}} 2002 Nobel Peace Prize recipient
Yeah, and he deserved it about as much as Obama did, 6 years later.
There’s never been a dictatorial regime whose elections Carter wouldn’t put his signature onto to give them support.
The man was an utterly shitty president, the worst until Obama and Biden.
MEANWHILE, Trump gets no less than three different significant ME peace accords negotiated, and … <crickets>…
The “prize” is nothing but unmitigated virtue-signaling crap.