Former first lady of the United States Rosalynn Carter, wife and advisor to former Democratic President Jimmy Carter, died this Sunday at the age of 96, the Carter Center announced.
In a statement, the Carter Center said Rosalynn Carter died after prolonged dementia and many months of declining health.
The former first lady has been under palliative care at her home in Plains, Georgia, since Friday, along with former President Jimmy Carter, 99, who has been receiving medical care since earlier this year.
The family announced earlier this year that the former first lady suffers from dementia.
The former US president has been under palliative care at home since February.
Eleanor Rosalynn Smith was born in Plains on August 18, 1927. Jimmy Carter’s mother, a nurse, took her as a newborn to the Smith family home. A few days later, Lillian Carter brought her son for a visit, resulting in the future president and future first lady meeting as newborns.
They married on July 7, 1946, and Jimmy Carter liked to say that his wife was “more political” than he was, a point she did not dispute.
After their defeat in 1980, the couple established the Carter Center in Atlanta as a global center for the defense of human rights, democracy and public health.
The Carters were married for more than 77 years, forging what they both described as a “complete partnership.”
Unlike many previous first ladies, Rosalynn attended presidential cabinet meetings, spoke out on controversial issues, and represented her husband on foreign trips.
President Carter’s aides sometimes referred to her, privately, as “co-president,” the AP reports.
“Rosalynn is my best friend… the perfect extension of me, probably the most influential person in my life,” Jimmy Carter later said of his years in the White House, which spanned from 1977 to 1981.
Source: TSF
