PLAINS, Ga. — Landmarks and notable events in the life of former U.S. first lady Rosalynn Carter:
– Aug. 18, 1927: Eleanor Rosalynn Smith is born at her family home in Plains, Georgia. She is the daughter of Wilburn Edgar Smith, a mechanic, and Allie Murray Smith, a seamstress and postal worker.
– Late August 1927: “Miss Lillian” Carter, a neighbor and nurse who delivered Rosalynn, brings her son, Jimmy, nearly 3 years old, to meet the new baby.
– 1940: Rosalynn‘s father dies, leaving her to help her mother raise her younger siblings.
– 1945: She begins dating Jimmy Carter, now a Naval Academy midshipman and the brother of her close friend, Ruth Carter.
– Spring 1946: She graduates from Georgia Southwestern College.
– July 7, 1946: She marries Jimmy at Plains Methodist Church, her childhood congregation. They would have four children: John William (“Jack”), born 1947; James Earl III (“Chip”), 1950; Donnel Jeffrey, 1952; and Amy Lynn, 1967.
– 1946-1953: Rosalynn manages the Carter household while Jimmy serves in the Navy’s nuclear submarine program, attaining the rank of lieutenant commander.
– 1955: She begins helping Jimmy in the farm warehouse; she soon “knew more on paper about the business than he did,” she recalled ahead of their 75th anniversary.
– 1962: She helps Jimmy campaign for state Senate, an office he would win in a contested election that was ultimately settled in court.
– 1966: Rosalynn begins campaigning on her own for the first time during Jimmy’s first run for Georgia governor, a race he loses. But their model of campaigning separately would be key to winning four years later and to capturing the presidency in 1976.
– 1975-76: She leads the “Peanut Brigade” of Carter family, friends and supporters from Georgia who spread out across Iowa and other key nominating states to widen the campaign’s person-to-person reach. The same model they used in Georgia revolutionizes presidential campaigning, with Rosalynn as Jimmy’s top surrogate.
– Jan. 20, 1977: Rosalynn, the newly sworn-in 39th president and their family draw special attention on Inauguration Day by walking down Pennsylvania Avenue rather than riding in an armored limousine. The Carters enroll daughter Amy in a Washington, D.C., public school that is majority-Black. In Atlanta, when Carter was governor, Amy had attended private school.
– Summer 1977: Rosalynn makes a 13-day diplomatic trip to seven Latin American nations and Caribbean islands. She also urges Jimmy to delay action on treaties yielding control of the Panama Canal, arguing it is too politically costly for a first term. He proceeds with the treaties.
– September 1978: Rosalynn is with Jimmy at Camp David for much of the intense negotiations with Israel’s Menachem Begin and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat. She listens to and advises the president daily before the three leaders reach the Camp David Accords. Begin and Sadat both warm to the first lady, and Sadat becomes especially close to the Carters.
– November 1979: Rosalynn leads a delegation to Cambodian refugee camps, bringing international media attention to the humanitarian crisis. She convinces the president to admit more refugees to the U.S.
– Summer and fall 1980: She campaigns nearly daily on Jimmy’s behalf, while he stays at the White House working to win the release of American hostages in Iran.
– 1980: She helps win…
