This Just In – Rosalynn Carter’s grandson, Jason, won the week with a clever piece of wordplay. At Tuesday’s memorial service in Atlanta, He flipped a cliché in welcoming the array of current and former presidents and spouses. “Secretary Clinton and Dr. Biden, we also welcome your lovely husbands.”
With just that remarkably succinct reference to the first lady status of being the President’s “Plus 1”, Carter tickled the funny bone of all attending. It was an elegant summation of the impact Rosalynn Carter had as First Lady and her life’s work as her family’s matriarch.
Rosalynn Carter was First Lady for only four years. In the story of a 96-year life, that’s not the headline.
It was a delightful, 100% southern, bless-your-heart kind of reference. It sounded soft and clever, but it actually made a deep and meaningful point. In raising and supporting our spouses, children and extended families, women frequently commit themselves to unpaid work that’s referred to with rather empty flattery and platitudes.
The First Lady’s responsibilities have a long tradition, but no official grounding. They are determined by the preferences of the “first couple.”
(AP Photo/John Amis, File)
When Gerald Ford abruptly became President, there were headlines for days about the apparently shocking news that he and Mrs. Ford would be sleeping in the same bed in the White House. Apparently, no one cared about this when he was Vice-President.
After Carter was elected, he and Rosalynn were interviewed by Barbara Walters. Ever-so-sheepishly, Walters asked if, like the controversial Fords, they would be sleeping in one bed at the White House.
Rosalynn took the question. She said that when Jimmy was Governor, there was a bedroom for the First Lady of Georgia. That’s where Amy slept, she said.
Walters went further. Would they be bringing their bed from Georgia? No, the Carters answered. Forging ahead, Walters pried, “one bed or two?” Just the one, they said.
Looking at this interview today, I thought … how embarrassing it is to watch a person with a national profile in journalism asking questions so meaningless and stunningly intrusive.
Written all over Rosalynn’s face was “Well, now Ms. Walters that is exactly none of your business,” but she stepped over that rude question and gave a factual answer. There was a separate bedroom for her in the Georgia Governor’s mansion and she chose not to use it – just like Walters chose not to use her manners in interviewing the President-elect and his wife.
Rosalynn Carter had an open and elegant mind. She made it easy for people from all stations in life to like and admire her. She understood human vulnerability. She knew she was very lucky to find (very early) the person she wanted to travel with through life’s ups and downs. Many of us look back through the years and come to realize what good fortune the right partner has been. By all accounts, she had this front-of-mind every day.
Lucky for all of us, Rosalynn Carter and her lovely husband Jimmy have given the world four children, and a slew of grand and great grandchildren. It was their grandson (James Earl Carter IV) who made the world aware of Mitt Romney’s “47%” comments during a fundraiser.
They’re a tough bunch, the Carters of Georgia. Steel magnolias, indeed.
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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