Timeline: Key moments from Rosalynn Carter’s life

PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — ___

Landmarks and notable occasions within the lifetime of former U.S. first girl Rosalynn Carter:

— Aug. 18, 1927: Eleanor Rosalynn Smith is born at her household residence in Plains, Georgia. She is the daughter of Wilburn Edgar Smith, a mechanic, and Allie Murray Smith, a seamstress and postal employee.

— Late August 1927: “Miss Lillian” Carter, a neighbor and nurse who delivered Rosalynn, brings her son, Jimmy, almost 3 years outdated, to satisfy the brand new child.

— 1940: Rosalynn’s father dies, leaving her to assist her mom elevate her youthful siblings.

— 1945: She begins relationship Jimmy Carter, now a Naval Academy midshipman and the brother of her shut pal, Ruth Carter.

— Spring 1946: She graduates from Georgia Southwestern Faculty.

— July 7, 1946: She marries Jimmy at Plains Methodist Church, her childhood congregation. They might have 4 youngsters: John William (“Jack”), born 1947; James Earl III (“Chip”), 1950; Donnel Jeffrey, 1952; and Amy Lynn, 1967.

— 1946-1953: Rosalynn manages the Carter family whereas Jimmy serves within the Navy’s nuclear submarine program, attaining the rank of lieutenant commander.

— 1955: She begins serving to Jimmy within the farm warehouse; she quickly “knew extra on paper in regards to the enterprise than he did,” she recalled forward of their seventy fifth anniversary.

— 1962: She helps Jimmy marketing campaign for state Senate, an workplace he would win in a contested election that was in the end settled in court docket.

— 1966: Rosalynn begins campaigning on her personal for the primary time throughout Jimmy’s first run for Georgia governor, a race he loses. However their mannequin of campaigning individually could be key to successful 4 years later and to capturing the presidency in 1976.

— 1975-76: She leads the “Peanut Brigade” of Carter household, mates and supporters from Georgia who unfold out throughout Iowa and different key nominating states to widen the marketing campaign’s person-to-person attain. The identical mannequin they utilized in Georgia revolutionizes presidential campaigning, with Rosalynn as Jimmy’s high surrogate.

— Jan. 20, 1977: Rosalynn, the newly sworn-in thirty ninth president and their household draw particular consideration on Inauguration Day by strolling down Pennsylvania Avenue relatively than driving in an armored limousine. The Carters enroll daughter Amy in a Washington, D.C., public faculty that’s majority-Black. In Atlanta, when Carter was governor, Amy had attended non-public faculty.

— Summer time 1977: Rosalynn makes a 13-day diplomatic journey to seven Latin American nations and Caribbean islands. She additionally urges Jimmy to delay motion on treaties yielding management of the Panama Canal, arguing it’s too politically pricey for a primary time period. He proceeds with the treaties.

— September 1978: Rosalynn is with Jimmy at Camp David for a lot of the extreme negotiations with Israel’s Menachem Start and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat. She listens to and advises the president day by day earlier than the three leaders attain the Camp David Accords. Start and Sadat each heat to the primary girl, and Sadat turns into particularly near the Carters.

— November 1979: Rosalynn leads a delegation to Cambodian refugee camps, bringing worldwide media consideration to the humanitarian disaster. She convinces the president to confess extra refugees to the U.S.

— Summer time and fall 1980: She campaigns almost day by day on Jimmy’s behalf, whereas he stays on the White House working to win the discharge of American hostages in Iran.

— 1980: She helps win congressional approval for the Psychological Well being Programs Act, dedicating extra federal cash to native facilities for treating psychological well being; Republican Ronald Reagan would later reverse course as president.

— November 1980: Jimmy Carter is denied a second time period by Reagan, who wins 51.6 p.c of the favored vote to 41.7 p.c for Carter and 6.7 p.c for impartial John Anderson.

— 1982: The Carters co-found The Carter Heart in Atlanta with a mission of resolving conflicts, defending human rights, advocating democracy and stopping illness around the globe.

— 1984: Rosalynn releases her memoir, “First Girl from Plains,” during which she admits to lacking Washington. It’s the first of her 5 books.

— September 1984: She travels to New York Metropolis, the place the Carters volunteer constructing houses for Habitat for Humanity; this is able to change into their annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Undertaking.

— 1987: She establishes the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers, situated at her collegiate alma mater, to advocate for People who’re unpaid caregivers.

— Summer time 1989: Rosalynn travels with Jimmy on a weeklong Africa tour that features a world convention on Guinea worm eradication, maybe The Carter Heart’s most bold public well being initiative.

— 1996: She establishes the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Psychological Well being Journalism, based mostly at The Carter Heart, to assist working journalists produce higher reporting on the subject.

— 1999: She is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Invoice Clinton.

— July 10, 2007: She testifies earlier than a U.S. House subcommittee, urging Congress to require that medical health insurance insurance policies cowl psychological well being remedy on par with remedy for different sickness.

— November 2016: She hosts the Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Psychological Well being Coverage for the thirty second time.

— October 2019: In Nashville, the Carters take part in particular person for the final time of their Habitat for Humanity work challenge; this system would proceed.

— April 30, 2021: The Carters obtain President Joe Biden and first girl Jill Biden at their residence in Plains. The {couples} had been mates because the 1976 marketing campaign, when Biden, then a younger lawmaker from Delaware, turned the primary U.S. senator to endorse Carter for president.

— July 7, 2021: The Carters have a good time their seventy fifth wedding ceremony anniversary. Providing recommendation for a profitable marriage, she says, “every (particular person) ought to have some area. That’s actually vital.”

— Feb. 18, 2023: The Carter household declares that Jimmy is coming into residence hospice care. They might later say they thought he would stay solely days however rebounded to have a good time their 77th wedding ceremony anniversary and his 99th birthday later within the 12 months.

— Could 30, 2023: The household declares that Rosalynn has dementia.

— Sept. 23, 2023: The Carters make a shock look within the Plains Peanut Pageant parade, driving in a Secret Service car with the home windows down for what could be her final public look.

— Could 17, 2023: The Carter household declares that she has entered residence hospice care.

— Nov. 19, 2023. Rosalynn Carter dies at residence in Plains, Georgia, in the identical home the place the Carters lived when Jimmy was elected to the state Senate in 1962.