Happy Birthday to a remarkable woman, Eleanor Rosalynn Smith Carter! Forever the first lady of the best of the American heart and spirit!
Rosalynn is 92. I saw her about a year ago at a book signing in Plains and she looked marvelous!
One of her enduring accomplishments is pairity for mental health treatment. Just a few years ago it was common for health insurance to ignore mental health completely. Thanks in part to the tireless efforts of Rosalynn Carter, health plans are required to offer basic mental health benefits.
In her time Rosalynn was criticized as “uppity” by Republicans because she sat in on some cabinet meetings and was interested in policy. As bookkeeper for the Carter peanut warehouse business in the 60’s and 70’s she was extensively investigated during the Republican outrage over “Peanutgate” which prompted a federal special prosicutor who spent millions looking into the sale of Jimmy’s peanut warehouse to brother Billy. The investigation found nothing except that Rosalynn was a much better bookeeper than Billy. President Carter was the first President ever to testify under oath. He didn’t whine or drag it into litigation, he just told the boring truth.
Columnists such as George Will and Sally Quinn mocked Rosalynn because she lacked Nancy Reagan’s sense of “style” (i.e. expensive tastes) and was no Jackie Kennedy in the charisma department. In fact, Rosalynn recycled the same gown she wore for Jimmy’s inagurual ball as Governor to his presidential ball. Can you imagine! What a blow to the fashion industry!
This is not a list of Rosalynn’s accomplishments over the past 92 years but I’ll mention a few. She fought tirelessly for the ERA. She was her husband’s very best political advisor. I like one of the least known: The Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail in metro Plains. Thank! you Rosalynn!