Ex-US President Jimmy Carter, 99, makes rare appearance for his wife’s memorial service
Mr. Carter did not speak, but the couple’s children and grandchildren celebrated the life well-lived of Rosalynn Carter, a humanitarian and mental health advocate who redefined the role of the modern First Lady.
Atlanta, US: Former US President Jimmy Carter, 99, made a rare public appearance on Tuesday to join his successors Joe Biden and Bill Clinton and all five living first ladies at the memorial service for his beloved wife Rosalynn.
A frail-looking Carter briefly left hospice care to attend the service at an Atlanta church, arriving in a wheelchair with a blanket on his lap embroidered with a photo of his wife’s face.
Carter said nothing, but the couple’s children and grandchildren celebrated the life well lived of Rosalynn Carter, a humanitarian and mental health advocate who redefined the role of the modern First Lady.
My mother was the glue that held our family together, said their son James Chip Carter, who kissed his father on the head and placed his hand on his mother’s flower-covered casket.
Biden and First Lady Jill Biden had a special moment with President Carter” before the service, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Air Force One.
Rosalynn Carter died on November 19, at the age of 96, at the couple’s home in Plains, Georgia, after a 77-year marriage that became a legend in American politics.
In love
Fighting back tears, their daughter Amy Lynn Carter read a love letter her father wrote to her mother three-quarters of a century ago while he was in the U.S. Navy.
My mother was in love with my father most of her life,” she told the congregation at Glenn Memorial Church.
Seated in the front row of the church were Biden who had supported Carter before the Democrat’s 1976 election victory and First Lady Jill Biden.
Joining them were former President Bill Clinton, who served from 1993-2001, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; and former first ladies Melania Trump, Michelle Obama and Laura Bush.
The service featured her favorite music, including a performance of the John Lennon song “Imagine” by American country stars Tricia Yearwood and Garth Brooks.
The turnout shows the high regard that Rosalynn Carter enjoys in the United States.
Rosalynn Carter was celebrated as an active first lady who stood up for then little discussed mental health issues. Rosalynn Carter’s reputation, like her husband’s, only grew after they left the White House.
Jimmy Carter lost his 1980 re-election bid to Republican Ronald Reagan and was widely dismissed as a failure.
However, the couple went on to build a global network of charitable activities and earned praise for their modest lifestyle.
Equal partner
Chip Carter praised his mother for helping him overcome his own drug and alcohol addiction, saying the former first lady made a “positive difference in people’s lives.
Joe and Jill Biden flew from Washington early Tuesday and gave the Clintons and Michelle Obama a ride on the presidential plane Air Force One, the White House said. Melania Trump did not take the same plane, it added.
The more private funeral on Wednesday in Plains will inevitably shift attention to the health of Jimmy Carter, the oldest living ex-president in American history and who moved to a hospice 10 months ago.
Presidential funeral services are typically attended by all living presidents Carter attended the memorial service for George W. Bush in Washington in 2018 providing a moment of national unity.
With Biden and Donald Trump likely to meet in a rematch of their bitter 2020 election battle, even the solemn occasion of a Carter presidential funeral could be scrutinized for signs of tension.
The Carters married in 1946 and held the record as the longest-married presidential couple.
When she died, Jimmy Carter said in a statement that she had been “my equal partner in everything I have ever accomplished.
Throughout Jimmy Carter’s long political career, his wife was central to his campaigns. And during her 1977 to 1981 stint in the White House, Rosalynn Carter worked to elevate the stature of the first lady’s office, even participating in Cabinet meetings.
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She met Jimmy Carter in 1945 while she was in college and he was on leave from the US Naval Academy in Annapolis.