Rosalynn Carter was remembered Tuesday, November 28, as a former US first lady who leveraged her fierce intellect and political power to put her deep Christian faith into action by always helping others, especially those who needed it most.
A gathering of first ladies and presidents – including her 99-year-old husband Jimmy Carter – joined other political figures in tribute. But a parade of speakers said her global stature wasn’t what defined her.
"She had met kings and queens, presidents, others in authority, powerful corporate leaders and celebrities," her son James Earl "Chip" Carter III said. "She said the people that she felt the most comfortable with and the people she enjoyed being with the most were those that lived in absolute abject poverty, the ones without adequate housing, without a proper diet and without access to health care."
The service was held during three days of events celebrating the humanitarian who died November 19 at home in Plains, Georgia, at the age of 96. Tributes began Monday in the Carters’ native Sumter County and continued at Glenn Memorial Church in Atlanta. Her funeral and burial are planned for Wednesday in her small hometown.
Jimmy Carter, who is 10 months into home hospice care, watched from his wheelchair, reclining and covered by a blanket featuring his wife’s face. Chip and his sister, Amy, held their father's hands and were flanked by their brothers, Jeff and Jack.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, the Carters' longtime friends, joined them in the front row, along with former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the other living former first ladies, Melania Trump, Michelle Obama and Laura Bush. Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff paid their respects, as did Georgia’s US senators and Governor Brian Kemp and his wife, Marty.
More than 1,000 people, including a sizeable contingent of Secret Service agents, filled the sanctuary. Former Presidents Donald Trump, Barack Obama and George W. Bush were invited but did not attend.
"My mother was the glue that held our family together through the ups and downs and thicks and thins of our family’s politics," Chip Carter said.
Journalist Judy Woodruff recalled Rosalynn Carter lobbying lawmakers, campaigning separately from her husband, attending Cabinet meetings and playing key roles – including being the first presidential adviser to suggest Camp David as a negotiating place for Epypt’s Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin. Those negotiations led to historic peace accords between the two countries. "Without Rosalynn Carter, I don’t believe there would have been a President Carter," Woodruff said.
It was Jimmy Carter’s first public appearance since he entered hospice care, other than a brief ride with Rosalynn in September’s Plains Peanut Festival parade, where they were visible only through the open windows of a Secret Service vehicle. He was with his wife during her final hours but did not appear publicly during earlier events at her alma mater, Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus, and at his presidential library.
"He never wants to be very far from her," Carter Center CEO Paige Alexander said. The trip to Atlanta was "hard" for the former president but "this is her last trip up and it’s probably his, too," she added. "He’s determined."
The Carters married in 1946 and became the longest-married presidential couple in US history. Jimmy Carter is the longest-lived president; Rosalynn Carter was the second-longest-lived first lady, trailing only Bess Truman, who died at 97.