Rosalynn Carter
Rosalynn Smith Carter | |
|---|---|
 | |
| First Lady of the United States | |
| In office January 20, 1977 – January 20, 1981 | |
| Preceded by | Betty Ford |
| Succeeded by | Nancy Reagan |
| Personal details | |
| Born | August 18, 1927 Plains, Georgia, US |
| Spouse | Jimmy Carter |
| Relations | Edgar Smith and Frances Allethea Murray, parents |
| Children | Jack, Chip, Jeff, Amy |
Eleanor Rosalynn Smith Carter (born August 18, 1927) is the wife of former United States President Jimmy Carter and was First Lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981.
Early life
Eleanor Rosalynn Smith was born in Plains, Georgia, the eldest of the four children of Frances Allethea Murray (1905–2000), a dressmaker, and Wilburn Edgar Smith (1896–1940), an automobile mechanic and farmer. Her brothers were Murray Lee Smith (minister, 1929–2003) and William Jerrold Smith (engineer, 1932–2003) and her sister is Lillian Allethea Smith Wall (1936).[1] The first syllable of Rosalynn is pronounced "rose," just like the flower.
Her father died of leukemia when she was thirteen, and she helped her mother raise her younger siblings as well as assist her dressmaking in order to meet the family's financial needs. She graduated as valedictorian of Plains High School and then attended Georgia Southwestern College.
Marriage and family
Although their families had known each other as friends and neighbors when they were children,[1] Rosalynn Smith first dated Jimmy Carter in 1945 while he was at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. On July 7, 1946, they married in Plains.
The couple has four children: John William "Jack" (born 1947) James Earl "Chip" III (born 1950), Donnel Jeffrey "Jeff" (born 1952), and Amy Lynn (born 1967). The first three were born in different parts of the country and away from Georgia, due to her husband's military duties.
In 1953, after her husband left the Navy, she helped him run the family peanut farming and warehousing business, handling the accounting responsibilities.
Since 1962, the year Jimmy Carter was elected to the Georgia State Senate, Rosalynn has been active in the political arena.
First Lady of Georgia
As First Lady of Georgia, Rosalynn was appointed to the Governor's Commission to Improve Services for the Mentally and Emotionally Handicapped. The Commission presented recommendations to Governor Carter, many of which were approved and then became law. Rosalynn also served as a volunteer at the Georgia Regional Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia and for five years was honorary chairperson for the Georgia Special Olympics for Mentally Challenged Children.
Campaigning
In January 1975, when her husband's gubernatorial term was over, Governor Carter, along with Rosalynn and Amy, went back to Plains. He had already announced his plans to run for President of the United States. Rosalynn returned to the campaign trail, this time in a national quest for support for her husband. She campaigned alone on his behalf in 41 states.
During the months she was campaigning across the country, Rosalynn was elected to the board of directors of the National Association of Mental Health; she was honored by the National Organization for Women with an Award of Merit for her vigorous support for the Equal Rights Amendment; and she received the volunteer of the Year Award from the Southwestern Association of Volunteer Services.
First Lady of the United States
In January 1977, she and her husband walked hand-in-hand down Pennsylvania Avenue during his inauguration. Not one for ostentation, she packed a picnic lunch for that day and wore a six-year-old dress during the ceremony.
During the Carter Administration, Rosalynn would sit in on cabinet meetings. She also worked in many charitable organizations, and met with and helped young children in impoverished third-world countries. She also would meet with world leaders and chief executives and heads of nations at Camp David when her husband was unavailable, and is today remembered as one of the most empowered First Ladies in history.
She was appointed a diplomat to Latin America during her husband's presidency.[citation needed] She also wrote policy and spoke before congressional committees to promote legislation.
In the time when she was not occupied with affairs of state, Rosalynn Carter enjoyed spending time with her grandchildren when they came to visit the White House.
Rosalynn Carter Institute
She is currently a global human rights activist and co-chair of the Carter Center. An important project to Mrs. Carter personally[citation needed] is the Rosalynn Carter Institute (RCI) at Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus, Georgia, her alma mater, of which she is Chair. The RCI was established in 1987 and works to address issues related to caregiving in America. The Institute focuses its work on both family and professional caregivers for individuals living with chronic illness and disabilities, limitations related to aging, and other health concerns. The work of the Institute is extensive both locally (in Americus), throughout Georgia and the United States. For example, the Institute provides scholarships and fellowships to students throughout Georgia, conducts needs assessments and research on caregivers, provides training and education for caregivers through its own curriculum, operates a Caregiver Resource Center for residents of southwest Georgia, offers a number of national caregiver awards including the Rosalynn Carter Caregiver Award, and partners with Johnson & Johnson to support innovative community caregiving programs throughout the United States.
Mental health advocacy
Carter led her husband's commission on mental health reform. In April 1984, Carter was made an Honorary Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and is also board member emeritus of the National Mental Health Association. In 2007, she joined with Daniel Wellstone, son of the late US Senator Paul Wellstone, to push Congress to pass legislation regarding mental health insurance.[2] Wellstone and Carter are working to pass the "Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act" which would require equal coverage of mental and physical illnesses when policies include both types of coverage; both testified before a House subcommittee regarding the bill in July 2007.[2]
In conjunction with Carter's mental health advocacy, in 2007 the Carter Center created six Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism. The six one-year fellowships, which begin in Sept. 2008, are dedicated to promoting public awareness of mental-health issues as well as erasing the stigma associated with them.[3]
Awards and honors
Since returning to Plains, Mrs. Carter has received the Presidential Citation from the American Psychological Association, the Distinguished Service Award for Leadership Christian Social Ethics from the Christian Life Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention and in August of 1983, she was elected to the board of directors of the Gannett Company, Inc. In April 1984, Carter became a member of the board of advisors of Habitat for Humanity, Inc. Her autobiography, First Lady from Plains, was published in May 1984. Both she and her husband received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999 from President Bill Clinton.
In 2001, Carter was elected to the National Women's Hall of Fame.[citation needed]
Mrs. Carter is also the godmother of Royal Caribbean International's MS Sovereign of the Seas which, at the time of its launch in 1988, was the world's largest passenger ship.
In popular culture
- Music group The Mars Volta mention Rosalynn Carter in their 2006 album Amputechture with the line "The kiosk in my temporal lobe / Is shaped like Rosalynn Carter / She says my map is home again / But torn face down" on the song Tetragrammaton. Cedric Bixler-Zavala (writer of the lyrics above) has been known to have a further interest in Rosalynn Carter [citation needed]. He has been seen with items, of clothing, supporting themes surrounding Carter, and even a badge picturing her.[citation needed]
References
- ^ a b "Rosalynn Carter". nndb.com. Retrieved 2008-04-13.
- ^ a b "Former first lady joins fight for mental health coverage". Associated Press. 2007-07-11. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
- ^ Columbia Journalism Review, Nov./Dec. 2007
- Portions of this article are based on public domain text from ibiblio. [1]