Eleanor Rosalynn Carter (August 18, 1927 – November 19, 2023) was an American writer, activist, and humanitarian who served as the first lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981, as the wife of president Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States. Throughout her decades of public service she was a leading advocate for women's rights.
The
longest-married couple in presidential history, the Carters, who celebrated
their 77th wedding anniversary in July, shared four children: sons John (also
known as Jack), 77, James (aka Chip), 74, and Donnel (aka Jeff), 72, and
daughter Amy, 57.
How Jimmy
Carter and Rosalynn first met
Jimmy and
Rosalynn weren't friends, but they were acquainted through their families
growing up. Rosalynn was very good friends, however, with Jimmy's younger
sister Ruth, who was closer to her in age and one of the few other girls in
town.
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| Jimmy and Rosalynn |
It wasn't until after Jimmy went off to the United States Naval Academy that Rosalynn had said her interest in him was piqued, after seeing a photo of him in uniform. Her curiosity didn't run too deep at first, because he was studying far from home. “He was so good to Ruth. He would write her letters, and she talked about him all the time. And she had his photograph on the wall in her bedroom. And I literally did fall in love with that photograph.” Rosalynn said
But one summer while Jimmy was visiting Plains before returning to the Naval Academy for his final year of school, he spotted Rosalynn and asked her out on a whim. They saw a movie together nothing too special or conversational, yet Jimmy went home that night with a feeling that he had just spent time with the woman he'd marry. At breakfast the next morning, Jimmy Carter gushed about Rosalynn to his mom. "She's the one I'm going to marry," he said.
The next time Rosalynn saw Jimmy he got down on one knee and proposed. She said no. Rosalynn later recalled she was too shocked to say yes. Also, she’d made a promise to her late father that she would finish her tertiary studies; something that may not have happened had she wed early.
Two
agonising months would pass until Rosalynn saw Jimmy next. Luckily, he proposed
again with a compact engraved with ‘ILYTG’ meaning ‘I love you the goodest’ – a
phrase the pair would sign off their letters to one another with.
Read more: How Joe Biden and Dr. Jill first met with pics
Quickly after Jimmy's graduation they tied the knot, beginning their marriage with a series of moves around the United States, going wherever the Navy took them. The former president said that he believed the couple's marriage, which took place in July 1946 when he was 21 and she was 18, was meant to be.
In his memoir, Jimmy Carter revealed that he was captivated by his future wife's beauty and brains. "Rosalynn was remarkably beautiful, almost painfully shy, obviously intelligent, and yet unrestrained in our discussions on the rumble seat of the Ford Coupe," he wrote in his memoir.