Former President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter have hit yet another milestone in their combined 181 years on this earth. Mr. Carter, 92, and Ms. Carter, 89, are celebrating 71 years of marriage today, July 7, 2017.
The couple met when they were children. Kathleen Foody with AP reports:
Jimmy's sister, Ruth, was one of Rosalynn Smith's best childhood friends. As teenagers, the girls tried to pair up shy Rosalynn with the future president whenever he returned home on visits from the U.S. Naval Academy.
They succeeded in 1945, when Jimmy Carter's planned date for the evening was busy at a family reunion. He invited his sister's friend to a movie. The next morning, he recalls telling his mother Rosalynn Smith is "the one I'm going to marry."
Early the next year, he asked for her hand. She said no, according to Jimmy Carter's 2015 book "A Full Life," explaining that she promised before her father's death to finish college. He persisted in letters and phone calls, and she eventually accepted.
He wore his dress-white Navy uniform and she wore a black and white bib dress to the small wedding ceremony. For several years, the young couple moved around the country at the Navy's direction.
Each has accomplished great deeds, individually. Jimmy, of course, as President, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, facilitator of peace, longtime advocate of democracy, education, solar energy… and Rosalynn with her work fighting for the rights of those with mental illness, as well as helping to remove the stigma. She also actively advocates for the elderly. Both Jimmy and Rosalynn are very prolific book authors.
Together, they are equally astounding.
The Carters created The Carter Center together in 1982, soon after the President left office and have since been “Waging Peace, Fighting Disease and Building Hope” around world. They have sought solutions for peace, monitored elections for freedom and democracy, and helped bring the cases of Guinea Worm disease from 3 million cases down to fewer than 10 cases. These accomplishments just touch on the work behind The Carter Center.
The Carters have also been building homes with Habitat for Humanity for over 30 years. The homes they build change people’s lives—and they are not giveaways.
Folks who often help build them pay for the homes. There is no interest and the monthly payments are low. Those same monthly payments help build new homes for others in need.
The duo can seem larger than life given all they have accomplished, but you can still write to them (The Honorable Jimmy Carter & Mrs. Rosalynn Carter) via The Carter Center. They’ve been known to personally write back. The mailing address is:
The Carter Center
One Copenhill
453 Freedom Parkway
Atlanta, GA 30307
There is also a Facebook page many visit called Honoring Jimmy Carter.
The page was set up to help pay tribute to the former President and First Lady, as well as dispel negative myths about President Carter propagated by his successor’s administration and a media that is only just beginning to convey his grand accomplishments. Given his record of keeping America out of war and facilitating peace treaties around the world, President Carter has spared possibly millions of lives. He is one of the greatest American leaders in our nation’s history and that will become more and more apparent as time goes by. The Honoring Jimmy Carter page continues to grow with now over 216k followers/members and they say they hope to hit 1M page followers by the end of this summer. If you visit the page, please give them a like. There you can find political and humanitarian stories and memes about President Carter and Rosalynn Carter—and enjoy a safe, positive, and pretty much troll-free place to share your comments and experiences regarding this lovely and incredible couple. To visit/like “Honoring Jimmy Carter” click here.
For a lifetime of giving and the examples they have set, many thanks to Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. May their love and years together continue to grow.
Related Stories:
Special thanks to The Atlantic Journal-Constitution/AJC. They often write about the couple and keeps the nation up to date on the many of the Carter’s activities.