Former first lady Rosalynn Carter, the closest adviser to Jimmy Carter during his one term as US president and their four decades thereafter as global humanitarians has died at the age of 96. The Carter Center said she died Sunday, November 19, after living with dementia and suffering many months of declining health.
The statement announcing her death said she "died peacefully, with family by her side" at 2:10 pm at her rural Georgia home of Plains. "Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished," Carter said in the 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."
Jill Biden, appearing at an event at Naval Air Station in Norfolk, Virginia, said she had to "lead this off with a sad announcement" — that Rosalynn Carter had died. "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 Carter family in your prayers," she said.
The Carters were married for more than 77 years, forging what they both described as a "full partnership." Unlike many previous first ladies", Rosalynn sat in on Cabinet meetings, spoke out on controversial issues and represented her husband on foreign trips. Aides to President Carter sometimes referred to her – privately – as "co-president." "Rosalynn is my best friend ... the perfect extension of me, probably the most influential person in my life," Jimmy Carter told aides during their White House years, which spanned from 1977-1981.
Fiercely loyal and compassionate as well as politically astute, Rosalynn Carter prided herself on being an activist first lady, and no one doubted her behind-the-scenes influence. When her role in a highly publicized Cabinet shakeup became known, she was forced to declare publicly, "I am not running the government."
Many presidential aides insisted that her political instincts were better than her husband’s – they often enlisted her support for a project before they discussed it with the president. Her iron will, contrasted with her outwardly shy demeanor and soft Southern accent, inspired Washington reporters to call her "the Steel Magnolia."
Both Carters said in their later years that Rosalynn had always been the more political of the two. After Jimmy Carter’s landslide defeat in 1980, it was she, not the former president, who contemplated an implausible comeback, and years later she confessed to missing their life in Washington.
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 what he said about denying military aid and other support to violators of human rights.
Throughout her husband's political career, she chose mental health and problems of the elderly as her signature policy emphasis. When the news media didn't cover those efforts as much as she believed was warranted, she criticized reporters for writing only about "sexy subjects."
As honorary chairwoman of the President's Commission on Mental Health, she once testified before a Senate subcommittee, becoming the first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt to address a congressional panel. She was back in Washington in 2007 to push Congress for improved mental health coverage, saying, "We've been working on this for so long, it finally seems to be in reach."
After leaving Washington, Jimmy and Rosalynn co-founded The Carter Center in Atlanta to continue their work. She chaired the center's annual symposium on mental health issues and raised funds for efforts to aid the mentally ill and homeless.
Frequently, the Carters left home on humanitarian missions, building houses with Habitat for Humanity and promoting public health and democracy across the developing world.
Jimmy Carter is the longest-lived US president. Rosalynn Carter was the second longest-lived of the nation's first ladies, trailing only Bess Truman, who died at age 97.