Jimmy Carter turns one hundred years old. The Democrat, 39th president of the United States (after Gerald Ford and before Ronald Reagan), between 1977 and 1981, would be very useful today. Nobel Peace Prize winner, his mandate was marked by important successes in foreign policysuch as the treaties on the Panama Canal, or the Camp David peace agreements (peace treaty between Egypt and Israel), but also the SALT II treaty with the Soviet Union and the establishment of diplomatic relations with China.
It is true that he lived through terrible moments with the hostage crisis in Iran. After leaving the White House, he dedicated himself to mediating international conflicts and supporting humanitarian causes. In 1982, together with his wife, he founded Rosalynnthe Carter Center, a non-governmental organization that fights for the advancement of human rights, mediation in international conflicts and that has been present as an observer in different electoral processes.
But beyond his well-known role as president and mediator, As he celebrates his first century of life, we want to focus on the impressive love story that has marked his life and that of his wife..
Rosalynn Carter passed away on November 19, 2023 at age 96.. The first lady was a pioneer: a Democratic woman, born in Georgia in 1927, a writer and women’s rights activist.
Orphaned by her father since she was a teenager, she helped her mother to cope with the family situation. He finished his basic studies and enrolled at Georgia Southwestern State University.
She married Jimmy Carter in February 1946 in her hometown.. They had four children: John William “Jack” (born 1947), James Earl “Chip” III (born 1950), Donnel Jeffrey “Jeff” (born 1952) and Amy Lynn (born in 1967). Since Carter left the United States Navy, he collaborated in the family business dedicated to the cultivation and marketing of peanuts, in the accounting department.
The love story
Eleanor Rosalynn was Jimmy’s neighbor and he always knew he would marry her. Together they had four children, were as good lovers as partners, and lived 77 happy years of marriage until she died not a year ago..
Currently, The Nobel Peace Prize winner lives in his home in Plains, Georgiareceiving palliative care and the love of his family, since his current situation is delicate after having fought against brain cancer that metastasized and liver cancer.
The 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter, has not only gone down in history for having governed between 1977 and 1981 with an administration fundamentally marked by the fight for human rights, international diplomacy and a constant search for peace and justice. The name of this Nobel Peace Prize -a prize awarded to him in 2002- will also be forever remembered for being the oldest president, since this October 1 he turns 100 years old. A date on which, despite his delicate state of health, he has much to celebrate, since his life was not only full in the exercise of his mandate, but also in its most intimate and personal aspect, since Carter can boast of having lived a fascinating love story with Rosalynnwho was his wife, his guide and even his consultant. “The best thing I have ever done in my life was marry her”Jimmy once said.
The curious thing is that his was a complete crush that was born in his earliest childhood.. James Earl Carter Jr., born October 1, 1924, in the small farming town of Plains, Georgia, was the eldest son of a peanut farmer and merchant and a progressive-minded nurse. Raised in a rural environment, in the segregationist context of the south of the country at that time, chance would have it that, when he was 3 years old, In a house in her neighborhood near her home, a beautiful girl named Eleanor Rosalynn was born.. As in the script of any good movie, Fate wanted it to be Jimmy’s mother who attended the birthso the next day she wanted to take her boy to meet the new neighbor she had helped birth. And they fell in love, although it would still take several years for them to fall in love..
It wasn’t difficult for it to happen, because Jimmy’s little sister, Ruth, became good friends with Rosalynn and together they planned for the latter to marry him.. Therefore, in 1945, when the young cadet returned home for a few days from the United States Naval Academy where he was studying, Jimmy saw his neighbor next to the United Methodist Church, and asked her on a date. She said yes, they went to the movies and Carter He fell so much in love that when he returned home he told his mother that he would marry that girl..
Months later she went to visit him at the Naval Academy and he got down on one knee to ask her to marry him.although his boldness did not work as expected and she told him no. But he continued persevering, and After several attempts he succeeded. Barely a year later, on July 7, 1946, they married – curiously in the same church where he asked her on a date -, beginning a life of complicity that lasted until last year. Rosalynn has been a constant companion in his public and private lifebecause she always supported her husband in each of his endeavors, whether it was his studies, his political career or family decisions. However, since not everything is easy in married life, both went through several crisesthe first when Jimmy had to learn to repress his ego and assume that his wife also had a say at home when it came to making decisions. “At first I was the dominant person in the marriage, but not anymore.”he acknowledged in an interview, where he talked about his own transformation, which made him assume that his wife deserved equal conditions with him. “She is just as strong, if not stronger, than I am. She is completely equal to me in all aspects of our relationship, in making business decisions and making most of the decisions about family matters. And I think for her “It was a struggle to achieve this degree of independence and equality in our personal relationship. So, long story short, years ago we had a lot of fights, none of them serious, but not anymore.”
Jimmy and Rosalynn’s marriage was built on shared values such as faith, family, and service to others.and they grabbed all of this when they had a dispute. But so united were they that, during Carter’s presidency, Rosalynn was an active first lady, notable for her work on mental health issues and as a key advisor to her husband.. Later, when Jimmy lost the presidency and left the White House, together they founded the Carter Center. “Over the years we only became friends and lovers, but also partners”she commented, while he confessed to the press: “I rarely make a decision that I don’t discuss with her, either to tell her later what I’ve done or, very frequently, to tell her my options and ask her for advice,” Jimmy acknowledged, who was happy with his wife until 2023, when they celebrated 77 years of marriage, becoming one of the longest presidential couples in the history of the United States. She, unfortunately, would die shortly after at the age of 96.
Currently, the state of health of the former president is delicate after having overcome a metastatic brain cancer, a liver cancer and other big bumpsincluding brain surgery after a fall in 2019. After spending long stays in hospitals, since February 2023 he has decided to spend the time he has left with his familyconfined in his home, where he only left last November to attend his wife’s funeral.
Somehow surely that little neighbor who came into his life with the help of her mother will be present in his heart as Carter makes history in the world of politics by blowing out the 100 candles on his birthday.
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