Rosalynn Carter
Eleanor Rosalynn Carter was an American activist and humanitarian who served as the first lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981, as the wife of President Jimmy Carter. Throughout her decades of public service, she was a leading advocate for women's rights and mental health.
Carter was born and raised in Plains, Georgia, graduated as valedictorian of Plains High School, and soon after attended Georgia Southwestern College, where she graduated in 1946. She first became attracted to her future husband, also from Plains, after seeing a picture of him in his U.S. Naval Academy uniform, and they married in 1946. Carter helped her husband win the governorship of Georgia in 1970, and decided to focus her attention in the field of mental health when she was that state's first lady. She campaigned for him during his successful bid to become president of the United States in the 1976 election, defeating incumbent Republican president Gerald Ford.
Carter was politically active during her husband's presidency, though she declared that she had no intention of being a traditional first lady. During his term of office, Carter supported her husband's public policies, as well as his social and personal life. To remain fully informed, she sat in on Cabinet meetings at the invitation of the President. Carter also represented her husband in meetings with domestic and foreign leaders, including as an envoy to Latin America in 1977. He found her to be an equal partner. She campaigned for his failed re-election bid in the 1980 election, which he lost in a landslide to Republican nominee Ronald Reagan.
After leaving the White House in 1981, Carter continued to advocate for mental health and other causes, wrote several books, and became involved in the national and international work of the Carter Center. Her husband and she also contributed to the expansion of the nonprofit housing organization Habitat for Humanity. In 1987, she founded the Institute for Caregivers, to inform and support the efforts of caregivers. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom alongside her husband in 1999.
Early life
Eleanor Rosalynn Smith was born on August 18, 1927, in Plains, Georgia. She was the eldest of four children of Wilburn Edgar Smith, an auto mechanic, bus driver, and farmer, and Frances Allethea "Allie" Murray Smith, a teacher, dressmaker, and postal worker. Her brothers were William Jerrold "Jerry" Smith, an engineer, and Murray Lee Smith, a teacher and minister. Her sister, Lillian Allethea Wall, known as Allethea, named for her mother and for Lillian Gordy Carter, is a real estate broker. Rosalynn was named after Rosa Wise Murray, her maternal grandmother. Smith's grand-uncle W.S. Wise was one of the American Brazilians known as Confederados who emigrated from the United States to the Brazilian Empire after the American Civil War.Smith's family lived in poverty, although she later said that her siblings and she were unaware of it, because even though their family "didn't have much money neither did anyone else, so as far as we knew, we were well off." Churches and schools were at the center of her family's community, and the people of Plains were familiar with each other. Smith played with the boys during her early childhood, since no girls on her street were her age. She drew buildings and was interested in airplanes, which led her to believe that she would someday become an architect.
Rosalynn's father died of leukemia in 1940, when she was 13. She called the loss of her father the conclusion of her childhood. Thereafter, she helped her mother raise her younger siblings, and assisted in the dressmaking business to meet the family's financial obligations. Rosalynn would credit her mother with inspiring her own independence and said that she learned from her mother that "you can do what you have to do". At Plains High School, Rosalynn worked hard to achieve her father's dream of seeing her go to college. Rosalynn graduated as valedictorian of Plains High School. Soon after, she attended Georgia Southwestern College and graduated in 1946. During her time in college, Rosalynn served as vice president of her class and was a founding member of her school's Young Democrats, Campus Marshal, and Tumbling Clubs. She graduated with a junior college diploma.
Rosalynn first dated Jimmy Carter in 1945 while he was attending the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. Rosalynn agreed to marry Jimmy in February 1946, when she went to Annapolis with his parents. The two scheduled their marriage to take place in July and kept the arrangement secret. Rosalynn was hesitant to tell her mother she had chosen to marry instead of continuing her education. On July 7, 1946, they married in Plains. Their marriage caused Rosalynn to cancel her plans to attend Georgia State College for Women, where she had planned to study interior design. The couple had four children: John William "Jack", James Earl "Chip" III, Donnel Jeffrey "Jeff", and Amy Lynn.
First Lady (1971–1981)
First Lady of Georgia (1971–1975)
After helping her husband win the governorship of Georgia in 1970, Rosalynn decided to focus her attention mainly in the field of mental health when she was that state's first lady. She was appointed to the Governor's Commission to Improve Services for the Mentally and Emotionally Handicapped. Many of the commission's recommendations were approved and became law. In August 1971, Carter engaged in a statewide tour of mental-health facilities across Georgia. She described her efforts on behalf of mentally disabled children as her proudest achievement as First Lady of Georgia.Carter also served as a volunteer at the Georgia Regional Hospital at Atlanta, and for four years was honorary chairperson for the Georgia Special Olympics.
Her work in addressing social issues made her "virtually revered in professional health-care circles." Her activities included entertaining as many as 750 people a week for dinner at the Governor's Mansion. Governor Carter once claimed that he had supported the Equal Rights Amendment, while his wife was opposed to the measure; the First Lady privately confronted him upon hearing news of the claim, and Carter corrected himself by later announcing to the press, "I thought I knew what Rosalynn thought, but I was wrong."
1976 presidential campaign
When her husband's gubernatorial term ended in January 1975, Rosalynn, Jimmy, and Amy Carter returned to Plains. Jimmy had already announced his plans to run for president of the United States. Rosalynn got back on the campaign trail, this time on a national quest to gather support for her husband. She campaigned alone on his behalf in 41 states. Because of her husband's obscurity at the time, she often had to answer the question, "Jimmy who?" She promoted the establishment of additional daycare facilities and adjustments to "Social Security and so many other things to help the elderly." In summer 1975, Rosalynn left the campaign trail to spend weeks at the Carter campaign's Atlanta headquarters raising money. She would later write that asking for donations was the part of campaigning she liked the least.During the months when she was campaigning across the country, she was elected to the board of directors of the National Association of Mental Health, honored by the National Organization for Women with an Award of Merit for her vigorous support for the Equal Rights Amendment, and received the Volunteer of the Year Award from the Southwestern Association of Volunteer Services.
Rosalynn sat in the balcony at Madison Square Garden with friends and family the night of the nomination, while her husband was with his mother and daughter. She had "butterflies in her stomach" until the Ohio delegation announced its votes were for her husband. Rosalynn wished she could have been with him at that time. The Carters met with all the potential running mates, and instantly gained affinity for Walter Mondale after meeting with him and his wife Joan. Rosalynn was unaware of her husband's choice in running mate until the 1976 Democratic National Convention, where Jimmy Carter telephoned Mondale to confirm him as his pick. At the convention, Rosalynn made several speeches to various state delegations. The Carters invited the five thousand delegates to a party where they shook the hands with all who attended, and by the event's last hour, Rosalynn was left only able to nod at guests after her mouth became dry.
After the 1976 Republican National Convention, Jimmy's lead in the polls lessened, making Rosalynn more anxious as they headed into the campaign's final months. Weeks before the election, Jimmy gave a Playboy interview where he admitted that he "looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times." His response would become the first question Rosalynn was asked while campaigning, and she would say she had never questioned her husband's fidelity. Jimmy Carter defeated Ford in the election. The Carters were at the campaign headquarters when the results came in. Both cried, and Rosalynn would later write that she had never been more proud. Following the election, the Carters traveled to the White House and met with President Ford and First Lady Betty Ford, the latter becoming a role model for Rosalynn.
First Lady of the United States (1977–1981)
Major initiatives
When her husband assumed the presidency in January 1977, Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter walked hand-in-hand down Pennsylvania Avenue during his presidential inauguration parade. The gown that she wore to the inaugural balls was the same one that she had worn six years earlier at the Atlanta balls when Jimmy became governor.Image:Rosalynn Carter chairs a meeting in Chicago, IL. for the President's Commission on Mental Health. - NARA - 174466.jpg|thumb|left|Carter chaired a meeting in Chicago, Illinois, for the President's Commission on Mental Health on April 20, 1977.
Carter declared that she had no intention of being a traditional first lady of the United States. During her husband's administration, she supported his public policies, as well as his social and personal life. To remain fully informed, she sat in on Cabinet meetings at the invitation of the President. The first meeting she attended was on February 28, 1977, where she felt comfortable since she was among other officials who were not members. The idea for her to be in attendance came at her husband's suggestion when she started to question him about a news story.
Carter took notes at the meetings, but never spoke. As she put it, "I was there to be informed so that when I traveled across the country, which I did a great deal, and was questioned by the press and other individuals about all areas of government, I'd know what was going on." When the cultural exchange program Friendship Force International launched at the White House on March 1, 1977, she became honorary chairperson, a position she held until 2002. She joined Lady Bird Johnson and Betty Ford in supporting the unsuccessful campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment at the Houston conference celebrating the International Women's Year in 1977.
In 1977, Carter was a speaker at the 1977 National Women's Conference among other speakers including Betty Ford, Bella Abzug, Lady Bird Johnson, Barbara Jordan, Audrey Colom, Claire Randall, Gerridee Wheeler, Cecilia Burciaga, Gloria Steinem, Lenore Hershey and Jean O'Leary.
For Christmas 1977, she decorated the White House's Christmas tree with ornaments made from pine cones, peanuts, and egg shells. On July 27, 1978, Carter was the host of "First Lady's Employment Seminar". Between 200 and 300 delegates came and shared information to learn how other communities responded to the problem of unemployment. Carter remembered 1979 and 1980 as years of never-ending crises, the years having "Big ones and small ones, potential disasters and mere annoyances."
During 1978, Carter became involved with an effort to reform D.C. General Hospital after criticizing its appearance, and traveled to the hospital for reviews of changing conditions as more work was done in remodeling.
File:Waylon Jennings Jessi Colter & Rosalynn Carter.jpg|right|thumb|Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, and Carter at a reception preceding a concert to benefit the Carter-Mondale campaign on April 23, 1980
Despite finding time to entertain, the Carters never were able to match their immediate predecessors and Carter never considered it a major part of her job as first lady.
Criticism came towards her role as first lady by a U.S. diplomat in Brazil, who insisted that women were meant to be kept "at home and that's all". The cultural factor had also caused many to oppose her trip. Critics called her too programmed and disciplined, while others said she lacked admirable qualities of Lady Bird Johnson and Betty Ford. Despite this, Carter was pleased by her viewed role as a demanding first lady and remembered the times of presidents' wives being "confined" to "official hostess" and other demeaning roles. In efforts to advance the appearance of the White House, she accumulated American paintings.
After the Carter administration began losing popularity, Carter advised that Gerald Rafshoon be brought on as White House Director of Communications and that key media figures be invited to the White House for "informal, off‐the‐record, deep discussions about issues." Rafshoon was selected and confirmed for the position.