 1927 - 2023 (96 years) Submit Photo / Document
Has 2 ancestors and 7 descendants in this family tree.
-
| Name |
Eleanor Rosalynn Smith |
| Birth |
18 Aug 1927 |
Plains, Sumter, Georgia, United States  |
| Gender |
Female |
| FamilySearch ID |
G7YC-MQY |
| Death |
19 Nov 2023 |
Plains, Sumter, Georgia, United States |
| Burial |
29 Nov 2023 |
Jimmy Carter National Historic Park, Plains, Sumter, Georgia, United States |
| Headstones |
 Submit Headstone Photo |
| Person ID |
I168983 |
mytree |
| Last Modified |
25 Feb 2024 |
| Father |
Wilburn Edgar Smith, b. 20 Nov 1896, Plains, Sumter, Georgia, United States d. 22 Oct 1940, Plains, Sumter, Georgia, United States (Age 43 years) |
| Mother |
Frances Allethea "Allie" Murray, b. 24 Dec 1905, Sumter, Georgia, United States d. 1 Apr 2000, Columbus, Muscogee, Georgia, United States (Age 94 years) |
| Marriage |
20 Jun 1926 |
Sumter, Georgia, United States |
| Family ID |
F42450 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
-
| Event Map |
|
 | Birth - 18 Aug 1927 - Plains, Sumter, Georgia, United States |
 |
| Death - 19 Nov 2023 - Plains, Sumter, Georgia, United States |
|
 | Burial - 29 Nov 2023 - Jimmy Carter National Historic Park, Plains, Sumter, Georgia, United States |
|
|
-
| Notes |
- Obituary:
Eleanor Rosalynn (Smith) Carter 1927 - 2023
Former first lady Rosalynn Carter, the closest adviser to Jimmy Carter du ring his one term as U.S. president and their four decades thereafter a s global humanitarians, has died at the age of 96.
The Carter Center said she died Sunday after living with dementia and suf fering many months of declining health. The statement announcing her deat h said she "died peacefully, with family by her side" at 2:10 p.m. at he r rural Georgia home of Plains.
"Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished," Carte r said in the statement. "She gave me wise guidance and encouragement whe n I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebo dy loved and supported me."
President Joe Biden called the Carters "an incredible family because the y brought so much much grace to the office" and also spoke of the couple' s "great integrity."
"Imagine they were together for (77) years?" Biden said. "God bless them. "
Jill Biden, who made an appearance earlier Sunday with the president at N aval Air Station in Norfolk, Virginia, said of Rosalynn Carter that she " was well-known for her efforts on mental health and caregiving and women' s rights. So I hope that during the holidays, you'll ... include the Cart er family in your prayers."
She spoke in a hangar where the Bidens planned to attend an early Thanks- giving dinner with service members and their families.
Reaction from world leaders poured in throughout the day.
The Carters were married for more than 77 years, forging what they both d escribed as a "full partnership." Unlike many previous first ladies, Rosa lynn sat in on Cabinet meetings, spoke out on controversial issues and re presented her husband on foreign trips. Aides to President Carter sometim es referred to her - privately - as "co-president."
"Rosalynn is my best friend ... the perfect extension of me, probably th e most influential person in my life," Jimmy Carter told aides during the ir White House years, which spanned from 1977-1981.
The former president, now 99, remains at the couple's home in Plains afte r entering hospice care himself in February.
Fiercely loyal and compassionate as well as politically astute, Rosalyn n Carter prided herself on being an activist first lady, and no one doubt ed her behind-the-scenes influence.
When her role in a highly publicized Cabinet shakeup became known, she wa s forced to declare publicly, "I am not running the government."
Many presidential aides insisted that her political instincts were bette r than her husband's - they often enlisted her support for a project befo re they discussed it with the president. Her iron will, contrasted with h er outwardly shy demeanor and a soft Southern accent, inspired Washingto n reporters to call her "the Steel Magnolia."
Both Carters said in their later years that Rosalynn had always been th e more political of the two. After Jimmy Carter's landslide defeat in 198 0, it was she, not the former president, who contemplated an implausibl e comeback, and years later she confessed to missing their life in Washin gton.
Jimmy Carter trusted her so much that in 1977, only months into his term , he sent her on a mission to Latin America to tell dictators he meant wh at he said about denying military aid and other support to violators of h uman rights.
She also had strong feelings about the style of the Carter White House. T he Carters did not serve hard liquor at public functions, though Rosalyn n did permit U.S. wine. There were fewer evenings of ballroom dancing an d more square dancing and picnics.
Throughout her husband's political career, she chose mental health and pr oblems of the elderly as her signature policy emphasis. When the news med ia didn't cover those efforts as much as she believed was warranted, sh e criticized reporters for writing only about "sexy subjects."
As honorary chairwoman of the President's Commission on Mental Health, sh e once testified before a Senate subcommittee, becoming the first first l ady since Eleanor Roosevelt to address a congressional panel.
She said she developed her interest in mental health during her husband' s campaigns for Georgia governor.
"I used to come home and say to Jimmy, 'Why are people telling me their p roblems?' And he said, 'Because you may be the only person they'll ever s ee who may be close to someone who can help them,'" she explained.
|
|
|
Submit Photo / Document
Has 2 ancestors and 7 descendants in this family tree.
English
