Rosalynn Carter, the wife of former President Jimmy Carter, died on Sunday at the age of 96 at the couple’s home in the southern state of Georgia, according to their nonprofit organization.
Carter was best renowned for her work after leaving the White House, when she and her husband championed human rights, democracy, and health issues all across the world – all while maintaining a very humble public image.
After being diagnosed with dementia in May, she had joined her husband in at-home hospice care on Friday.
“Former first lady Rosalynn Carter, a passionate champion of mental health, caregiving and women’s rights, passed away Sunday… at her home in Plains, Georgia, at the age of 96,” the Carter Center said in a statement.
“She died peacefully, with family by her side.”
“Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” Jimmy 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,” the former Democratic president said.
Jimmy Carter’s wife was at the core of his campaigns throughout his long political career. Rosalynn Carter distinguished out as a first lady who wanted to be involved in policy while in the White House from 1977 to 1981.
“She attended Cabinet meetings and major briefings, frequently represented the Chief Executive at ceremonial occasions and served as the president’s personal emissary to Latin American countries,” according to the White House website.
‘Sorely missed’
Rosalynn Carter was born on August 18, 1927, as the first of four children in the little town of Plains. When she was 13, her father died, and she had to work alongside her mother, who had become a dressmaker, to make ends meet.
She met Jimmy Carter in 1945, while he was on leave from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis.
They married in 1946 and are the longest-married presidential pair in US history, as well as the oldest living US president (99-year-old Jimmy Carter).
After losing a grandson in 2015, the former first lady is survived by her four daughters, 11 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren, according to the Carter Center.
“Besides being a loving mother and extraordinary first lady, my mother was a great humanitarian in her own right,” the Carters’ son Chip Carter said in the Center’s statement.
“She will be sorely missed not only by our family but by the many people who have better mental health care and access to resources for caregiving today.”
In February of this year, the Carter family revealed that Jimmy Carter had entered hospice care in Plains, where he and Rosalynn had lived since the 1960s.
According to his family, the one-term Democratic president has astonished many by continuing to accept visitors, receive news about the Carter Center’s humanitarian efforts, and frequently enjoy ice cream.