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Rosalynn Carter Facts

Rosalynn Carter Facts
Rosalynn Carter is an American citizen who is best known for being the First Lady while her husband, Jimmy Carter, was the thirty-ninth president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. Like many recent first ladies, Rosalynn was active in a number of causes and advised her husband on several issues, even occasionally sitting in on cabinet meetings. In many ways she established the precedent of the active first lady that was followed by Nancy Reagan, Hillary Clinton, and Michelle Obama. She was born Elanor Rosalynn Smith on August 18, 1927 to Wilburn and Frances Smith in Plains, Georgia. Rosalynn's family was very poor and since her father died when she was young, she was forced to help her mother care for her three younger siblings. Rosalynn and Jimmy knew each other through their families in Plains, Georgia and developed a romantic relationship while he was attending the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. After Jimmy graduated, the couple married and later had three sons and one daughter.
Interesting Rosalynn Carter Facts:
Rosalynn helped run the family's peanut farm after Jimmy left the Navy in the early 1950s. When Jimmy later entered national politics he was often referred to as the "peanut farmer from Georgia."
Although a lifelong Democrat at a time when the Democratic Party stood for segregation in the South, Carter never espoused any anti-black rhetoric. She supported her daughter's black nanny, Mary Prince, who was convicted of murder but later determined to have been innocent.
She was the First Lady of Georgia when her husband was governor of that state from 1971 to 1975.
While the first lady of Georgia and later as the first lady of the United States, one of Rosalynn's primary issues was the battle against mental illness.
Rosalynn and Jimmy's youngest child, Amy, lived with them in the White House. She was only nine years old when she moved in, being the only child to live in the White House since John F. Kennedy Junior. Amy is remembered her Siamese cat, Misty Malarky Ying Yang.
One of the few controversial moments that Rosalynn was involved in was when she was photographed with Illinois serial killer John Wayne Gacy in 1975 at a Illinois Democrat Party gathering.
Rosalynn was the first First Lady to keep an office in the White House.
She was an ardent supporter of women's right and an advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment.
After leaving Washington in 1981, Rosalynn became very active in promoting her husband's nonprofit organization, the Carter Center.
Her memoir, First Lady from Plains, was published in 1984.
In recent years, Rosalynn and Jimmy have been active with Habitat for Humanity, speaking on behalf of the organization.
Rosalynn Carter is the oldest living former First Lady and the sixth longest living in history. She and Jimmy still live in their hometown of Plain, Georgia: Rosalynn is ninety-two and Jimmy is ninety-five.


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