Trump's election helping his Criminal Cases

 

The Carter Center reports that Rosalynn Carter, who as first lady dedicated her life to promoting mental health reform and elevating the status of the president's spouse, passed away on Sunday at the age of 96. 

The center released a statement stating that Rosalynn Carter passed away in her Plains, Georgia, home in peace and with her family by her side.

"I always saw Rosalynn as an equal partner in all that I did," her husband, the late President Jimmy Carter, remarked. Rosalynn's presence in the world ensured that I always had love and support from someone.

The former first lady has entered hospice care, according to a Carter Center announcement on Friday. In May, she received a dementia diagnosis. 

After a string of hospital stays, her husband started receiving home hospice care in February.

Four years after his election, Ronald Reagan handily defeated Jimmy Carter. In addition to negotiating a historic peace treaty with Israel and Egypt that stands today, his one-term presidency was characterized by skyrocketing inflation and the hostage situation in Iran. Rosalynn was by his side the entire time, often whispering in his ear. 

In addition to redefining and revolutionizing the post-presidency, the Carters collaborated to advance human rights and international peace on behalf of The Carter Center, a nonprofit organization with headquarters in Atlanta that was established with the mission of "waging peace, fighting disease, and building hope." At a holiday celebration at Naval Station Norfolk on Sunday, First Lady Jill Biden honored the memory of Rosalynn Carter by informing the service members and their families, "The former first lady Rosalynn Carter has just passed." She was also well-known for her work on women's rights, mental health, and caregiving.

Therefore, Jill Biden wished for people to remember to pray for the Carter family throughout the holidays.

Speaking to media during the holiday gathering, President Joe Biden expressed his admiration for the Carter family. 

Laura Bush, the previous first lady, and George W. Bush both referred to Rosalynn Carter as "a woman of dignity and strength."

President Carter had no better ally, and their collaboration was a magnificent example of faithfulness and dedication. She has made a significant contribution to the de-stigmatization of mental health. The two released a statement together saying, "We join our fellow citizens in sending our condolences to President Carter and their family."

Following their departure from the White House, the couple visited popular destinations across the globe, such as North Korea, Cuba, and Sudan, where they worked to cure neglected tropical diseases like Guinea worm and monitored elections.In 2002, Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

A common legacy is the Carter Center. Jimmy Carter taught Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church, where the Carters also attended, and Jill Stuckey, a friend of the Carters, stated, "She's been there digging latrines right next to him."

Rosalynn Carter's efforts to lessen the stigma associated with mental illness and her advocacy for parity and access to mental health care will be her most enduring personal legacies. In addition, she gave her time to support families and professional caregivers of people with illnesses and disabilities at Georgia Southwestern State University's Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving.

The highest civilian award in the nation, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, was given to both Carters in 1999 by then-President Bill Clinton. He said that compared to any other marriage on Earth, they had done more good deeds for more people in more places.

Jimmy Carter and Roseanne "Steel Magnolia" Carter had a real lifelong friendship and what many would consider to be a true American story. 

When the 39th president revealed he had brain cancer in 2015, one of his greatest achievements was questioned. That was marrying Rosalynn, and he said without hesitation, "That's the pinnacle of my life."

At another time, he revealed the key to his long-lasting marriage.

The basis for my total enjoyment of life has been Rosalynn. Initially, it's advisable to choose the right woman, which I did.

Eleanor Rosalynn Smith and Jimmy Carter were expected to meet in their little Georgian village of Plains. Back then, candy cost one nickel, and everyone in the town was acquainted with one another.

In her autobiography, "First Lady from Plains," Rosalynn stated that "people would open restaurants every now and then, but they would never last very long."

Rosalynn was not raised in an affluent household. When she was thirteen years old, her father, an auto mechanic, passed away from cancer, and her mother worked as a dressmaker. She regarded her father's passing as the end of her youth and assisted in raising her younger siblings.

Rosalynn's closest friend and Jimmy's sister Ruth introduced the Carters. Carter's picture was hanging on Ruth's bedroom wall when Rosalynn noticed it and said, "He was the most handsome man I'd ever seen." Ruth was even asked if she might bring his picture home with her.

Following a church gathering, Jimmy and Rosalynn—both devoted Southern Baptists—met and quickly started dating. When he was twenty-one and she was eighteen, they were married shortly after he graduated from the Naval Academy.

According to Rosalynn's memoir, "I think I was kin to everybody that Jimmy wasn't when we got married." We were related to everyone in the community after we were married.

Rosalynn moved around a lot while managing a big household as the wife of a naval officer. In a short period of time, the Carters welcomed three children: Donnel Jeffrey ("Jeff") in New London, Connecticut in 1952; James Earl ("Chip") III in Hawaii less than three years later; and John William ("Jack") in Norfolk the year following their nuptials. 1967 saw the birth of their only child, Amy Lynn, one year after Carter's first attempt to become governor of Georgia was unsuccessful.

After his father passed away in 1953, Jimmy Carter resigned his commission in Schenectady, New York, where he had been accepted into an elite nuclear submarine program, in order to return to Plains and take care of the family farm. He made the decision to move the family without consulting Rosalynn. 

Rosalynn, who was later dubbed the "Steel Magnolia" by the media (a moniker she accepted, stating once in a C-SPAN interview that "steel is tough and magnolia is southern"), was inherently shy and would knock herself out when required to give a speech during the early years of her husband's political career in the 1960s.

But she was already a seasoned politician when he declared his candidacy for president in December 1974.

Carter aide Stuart Eizenstat described her as a shy woman who "bloomed in the most wonderful way," going on to say that she went from being a housewife to a political partner. 

She quickly began numbering the president's jokes so that he wouldn't tell them to the same group twice. In an effort to improve her memory, she even enrolled in memory lessons. She also started typing thank-you notes to acquaintances her husband had made while out on the campaign trail. She worked on her speeches till the wee hours of the morning.

In a statement on Sunday, former President Donald Trump mentioned the Carters' lengthy marriage while applauding her years of national service.

Melania and I express our condolences to the family of Rosalynn Carter, as do all Americans. She was a wonderful humanitarian, a committed First Lady, an advocate for mental health, and her husband's 77-year-old wife, President Carter,” Trump posted on social media. 

Plains First Lady Carter 

Sought to break free from the suspicion and mistrust of former President Richard Nixon by running for office as an outsider in Washington. He organized the "Peanut Brigade," a group of unpaid Georgian volunteers, to run his campaign.

With a vengeance, Rosalynn took the road and went to a tiny town, where she identified the tallest antennae and went to the local radio and television stations to offer herself for an interview. She claimed in her memoir that Jimmy Carter was unknown to some of the smaller stations with fewer staff members.

With a list of five or six questions she wanted answered, Rosalynn arrived prepared. She claimed that the station used the questions nine times out of ten.

"I was communicating my message," she said in her autobiography.

She travelled to 105 Iowan communities and spent seventy-five days in Florida during the course of the presidential campaign, all in support of her husband.

"I still had trouble with a dry throat and sometimes a trembling voice when I approached an interview or a speech, but my nervousness began to disappear when I realized people seemed pleased to meet me," she wrote in her memoir.

With just 51% of the popular vote and 297 electoral votes, Carter narrowly defeated President Gerald Ford, who had taken over as president following Nixon's resignation in 1974.

After the inauguration ceremony, the Carters chose to stroll down Pennsylvania Avenue hand in hand with their daughter Amy, disregarding security concerns and defying convention. It was a part of their shared ambition to break free from Nixon's perceived authoritarian leadership and establish a human connection.

Rosalynn even wore the same blue chiffon dress with gold embroidery on the sleeveless coat she wore to her husband's 1971 inauguration as governor to the 1977 inauguration balls. Mary Matise created the pattern just for Jimmae, and she purchased it from a shop in Americus, Georgia.

She had looked up to the then-first lady Eleanor Roosevelt as a young child; she was a powerful international figure who tackled problems like poverty and civil rights. Once in the White House, Rosalynn took the lead in revolutionizing the first lady's role and was the first to appoint a chief of staff whose federal salary and position matched that of the president's chief of staff.

She was employed by the East Wing as the first first lady. Prior to her, first ladies operated out of the family's private home, which was located in an office on the second or third floor of the White House. Additionally, full-time jobs in the East Wing increased by about 20% while she was in charge. However, her overly ambitious approach to the position attracted criticism, especially her contentious choice. 

She campaigned as first lady to have the Equal Rights Amendment passed, which would have changed the Constitution to forbid sex-based civil rights discrimination.

As the years passed, Rosalynn did not hesitate to publicly disagree with her husband, according to Steven Hochman, director of studies at The Carter Center and longtime collaborator of the Carters dating back to 1981. The former president enjoyed sharing stories about how one of his elementary school teachers had told her students that "any child could be president" when he was speaking to an audience.

During an interview, Hochman recalled that Mrs. Carter would correct him. Any boy could be president, she added.

Like the vice president and president having lunch every week, Rosalynn wrote in her memoir about having lunch in the Oval Office every Wednesday with her husband. Rosalynn had urgent matters to attend to, such as their own money, their children, and the subjects she was passionate about, such as mental health. This is how the ritual came to be.

She would approach the president with a barrage of questions and suggestions when he got off the second floor elevator at the end of the day, prior to those weekly lunches. She spoke with kids in underperforming schools and spoke with mothers about how their family budgets were being impacted by increasing fuel prices. She wanted to bring these concerns to his notice.

He proposed a weekly lunch, and she started planning these kinds of meetings, taking notes in a brown leather folder. She kept notes in the folder, which was on her bedside desk, all week long. It was packed by the time she took it to their Wednesday lunch.

Rosalynn Carter recognized that the position of first lady is "largely shaped by the passions and aspirations of the person holding it," as former first lady Michelle Obama noted in a statement on Sunday. 

Barack and I are here today to celebrate the incredible legacy of a First Lady, philanthropist, and activist who dedicated her life to her life to lifting up others,” Michelle Obama added. 

Mental health campaigning

Mental health was Rosalynn Carter's trademark concern. During her husband's 1970 gubernatorial campaign, she was inundated with inquiries about what she would do for a family who was struggling with mental illness.

In an interview with The Carter Center decades later, she recounted, "One day, I lined up with everyone else to shake hands with Jimmy when he was speaking at a rally." "When he recognized me, he smiled and said, 'What are you doing here?' "I arrived to observe your plans regarding mental health in your role as governor," I retorted.

She recalled hiding and running when she heard her distant cousin, who suffered from mental illness, walking through their little village while singing loudly. The former first lady stated in her memoir that "he probably wanted nothing more than friendship and recognition, yet he was different, and when I heard him, my impulse was to flee."

She was so affected by the event that she spent a significant amount of her time at the White House pushing for improved services for those suffering from mental illnesses. In the White House, she assisted her husband in forming a Presidential Commission on Mental Health. As Georgia's first lady, she also contributed to the move of treatment to community mental health centers. 

Rosalynn Carter informed the press the day the panel was unveiled that she had received a note from the Department of Justice stating that the president was not allowed to nominate a close relative, like a wife, to a civilian position. She had intended to serve as the committee's chair till then.

Reporters laughed as she stated, "There is, however, no problem with you being designated as honorary chairperson." I will thereby take on a highly active role as honorary chairwoman.

When she spoke before Congress in 1979 regarding the need for mental health reform, she became the second first lady to do so after Eleanor Roosevelt.

In a joint statement released on Sunday, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "Throughout her long, remarkable life, she was an unwavering voice for the overlooked and underrepresented."

During school days, she made it a point as first lady to arrive at the family's private quarters by 4 p.m. to welcome Amy, her 9-year-old daughter, and they would usually have dinner together around 6:30 p.m. Amy was the first presidential kid since Theodore Roosevelt's son to attend a public school.