Rosalynn Carter The Former First Lady Of The United States, has Died At Age 96

 REST IN PEACE | Rosalynn Carter, the former First Lady of the United States, has died at age 96, the Carter Center announced.

Rosalynn Carter, the former First Lady of the United States who changed what it meant to serve in that role, has died. She was 96.

The Carter Center said the 96-year-old former first lady had died peacefully with family by her side. 

“Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” former President Jimmy Carter said in a statement. “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.”

On Friday, Carter had entered hospice care at home in Plains, Georgia. The family announced earlier this year that the former first lady had been diagnosed with dementia. The former president, now 99, entered hospice care at home in February.  

Eleanor Rosalynn Smith was born in Plains, Georgia on August 18, 1927. She was the eldest of four children. When she was 13, her father, Wilburn Edgar Smith, died of leukemia. Rosalynn was forced to take charge of her family while her mother got a job.  

She later credited her mother, Frances Allethea Murray Smith, with infusing her with a sense of independence.  

"I learned from my mother you can do what you have to do," she told the Chicago Tribune in 2002. 

Rosalynn attended Plains High School and graduated from Georgia Southwestern College in 1946.   

Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter were married on July 7, 1946 – one month before Rosalynn’s 19th birthday. They had three sons over the next six years -- John William, James Earl III and Donnel Jeffrey – and then waited another 15 years before having a daughter, Amy.  

She was a full partner with Jimmy in business and as he entered local, state and national politics. Jimmy declared Rosalynn was the “only politician in the family” – and he meant it. 

Her unmatched ferocity to win was cloaked in her gracious Southern charms, earning her the nickname “Steel Magnolia”.   Rosalynn and Jimmy also hold the record of the longest-married couple in presidential history – with the couple celebrating their 77th wedding anniversary on July 7, 2023.  

Rosalynn leaves behind her husband, four children, 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.  

“There are only four kinds of people in the world - those who have been caregivers, those who are caregivers, those who will be caregivers and those who will need caregivers.”