Posted on 10/13/2002 3:01:24 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Plains -- When it announced that Jimmy Carter had won its 2002 Peace Prize, the Nobel Committee didn't mention the ex-president's wife. Carter pointed out the oversight hours later, at a Friday press conference in Plains.
The Nobel, he acknowledged, wasn't really his alone.
"I'm especially grateful to ..." Carter stopped, the emotion welling. "... Rosalynn, who has been a partner in everything I've done."
Clearly, Jimmy Carter's lifetime of achievement owes a great deal to Rosalynn Carter. She has helped, questioned, cajoled and ultimately molded this country's 39th president. She has counseled her husband on some of recent history's more significant moments -- peace talks in Haiti, North Korea, the Sudan and beyond -- all while carving out her own very successful niche in the fields of mental illness and caregiving.
Rosalynn Carter deflects any credit. "It would be personally satisfying for me, even if I had not been involved in the things he does," she said in an interview Saturday. "But having worked with him, and seeing all the good that he's done, I know that we are all better off."
Partnership evolved
The Carters' is a modern marriage imbued with down-home doses of respect and love. It hasn't always been easy, especially when they returned to Plains after their inglorious exit from Washington in 1981.
"We have been married 56 years now and we do have serious disagreements and get hot-headed and not inclined to yield," Jimmy Carter said Saturday. "But we have made a pact with each other to never let those kinds of things fester. We have learned to swallow our pride and at least continue conversations with each other in a quite frank way. That's how we avoid things getting out of hand."
Their lives are on daily display all around this low-slung peanut and cotton town. Carter, 78, usually with Rosalynn, 75, ride their mountain bikes from the family compound on Woodland Drive along the quiet, oak- and pine-lined streets to the business district.
The former president stopped Saturday morning at Bobby Salter's peanut emporium to chat. The back-room brick walls are covered with photos of Plains' most famous couple.
The Carters, both financially and physically, helped refurbish the Plains Historic Inn a few doors down. Rosalynn Carter traveled Georgia and Texas to pick out the inn's period-piece furniture.
"She is very educated about the world but she knows about Main Street, too," said innkeeper Sandra Walters, a cousin. "As the first lady she wasn't there just for the teas or to learn how to put on a pretty dress.
"She is definitely her own person. And she has been a huge influence on him."
It wasn't always that way.
"When we first got married, I was a young naval officer and I was completely dominant," Jimmy Carter recalled. "That has certainly changed. Now, neither one [of us] tries to dominate the other one. Now, it's give and take as harmonious partners."
When Carter's father died, the young couple returned to Plains to run the family's agribusiness. They struggled financially, living in public housing. Rosalynn labeled herself "the stereotypical 1953 housewife" raising three young boys. She also said she was "miserable."
Soon, though, she began helping her husband with the business, handling the books and studying the intricacies of tax law.
In the late 1960s, while stumping for her husband's gubernatorial bids, Rosalynn Carter was asked what her husband would do for the state's mentally ill. Today, she runs a nationally acclaimed mental health program at the Carter Center in Atlanta and is considered an international spokeswoman for the emotionally and mentally ill.
"Back then, nobody talked about mental illness. They didn't know anything about the brain. Doctors didn't know how to treat mental illness," she said. "Now, we have so much knowledge of how the brain works.."
On the world stage
Rosalynn Carter's social consciousness expanded greatly upon her husband's ascension to the White House in 1976. While never abandoning mental illness issues, Mrs. Carter also immersed herself in her husband's peace efforts.
She was at Camp David, for example, when Israel and Egypt made peace, taking notes, whispering advice and re-hashing the day's event with the president. The wife-as-sounding-board-and-confidante pattern continued over the next 25 years.
She accompanied the ex-president on virtually every major peace-undertaking -- in Kosovo and Uganda, Nicaragua and North Korea.
"We had a whole list of things that Washington had asked us to do with Kim Il Sung," Jimmy Carter recalled. "We found that he was quite amenable to being flexible. So Rosalynn suggested we ask Kim to cooperate in the recovery of the remains of Americans buried in North Korea during the Korean War."
Carter said that in general in dealing with foreign leaders, his wife was "sometimes more skeptical or cynical than I was. I'm inclined to be more trusting."
Upon leaving the White House, after being beaten by Ronald Reagan, the Carters found small-town life personally trying. They collaborated on a book, "Everything To Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life," a recipe for emotional and spiritual health. Ironically, the book strained their own marriage.
They worked in separate rooms, sometimes not talking for days. Jimmy Carter said "it was the worst thing we've been through."
Rosalynn Carter elaborated Saturday: "We worked through all that. We disagree just like everybody else. We have a good relationship. Everybody needs some space of his or her own. That is what we learned when we came home."
'Like one person'
Mary Prince has worked as a housekeeper, nanny -- primarily to daughter Amy, the youngest -- and confidante for the Carters for 31 years. She first worked at the Governor's Mansion in Atlanta while serving prison time for manslaughter (she was later pardoned). She followed them to Washington and has remained in Plains since 1981.
Circumspect, Prince nonetheless offers a first-hand perspective on Rosalynn Carter's rise from "shy" housewife to "confident" international policymaker.
"Besides being husband and wife, they are excellent partners," Prince said Saturday in a rare interview. "They're great together. It's like one person, just how close they are.
"Helping people in the United States and bringing peace to the world," Prince continued, "that's what motivates him and her both."
Monday through Friday, Prince prepares the Carters' breakfast and watches them kiss before retiring to their separate offices, his in the old garage, hers in an old bedroom.
They share lunch and dinner, too, and play tennis -- Mr. Carter wins "pretty regularly," his wife says -- in the back yard or jog or take bike rides through town and into the country. Twenty-mile treks aren't out of the ordinary.
Rosalynn Carter cooks dinner, goes to the Piggly Wiggly and manages the finances, as she did Saturday afternoon. Jimmy Carter will teach Sunday school this morning and prepare for Monday's election-monitoring trip to Jamaica.
Rosalynn Carter will return to Atlanta and the Carter Center to participate in a roundtable discussion at Emory University later in the week.
"Every year we say that we should cut down a little bit, but it never happens," she said. "We have so many opportunities and exciting things to do."
Yeah, that's some kind of deflecting.
If only it had been a straight jacket!
THE VERY DEEP THOUGHTS OF JIMMY AND ROSALYNN CARTER*** Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, who used to be employed as a live-in couple in Washington, have written a book. Actually, it's more than a book. Around my house Everything to Gain has become a complete home-entertainment center. Using the Carter opus, I've developed no less than five swell new parlor games. They are better than Trivial Pursuit, charades and nude Scruples combined. The rules are printed below. Try them yourself.***
LOL
I think they were out fishing and the rabbit scared them off.
Carter was better suited for the clergy.
Seeing the decidedly socialist direction so many religions have taken, I'd have to agree.
But -- and it pains me to say this -- I must part company with fellow conservatives regarding the wisdom in awarding Jimmy Carter the Nobel Peace Prize. My conservative brethren seem shocked and appalled at the decision.
Not I. ...... Jimmy -- Worthy Nobel Laureate?
A year ago America was attacked, and over 3000 of its citizens were murdered. Since that time President Bush declared war on terrorism. American forces liberated Kabul, allowing women to once again wear clothing of their choice without the fear of being beaten, or killed. They then went on to drive the Taliban forces into the Bora Bora mountains, where they were either exterminated, or rounded up, and sent to Guantanamo Bay.
Bush then went on to set an agenda to stop terrorists, that have been moving about un-abated for over 8 years, and started holding dictators accountable for their actions.
President Bush is working towards securing freedom, and security for not only our Country, but for the rest of the world. Bush isn't in it for self glorification. He is in it to make sure attacks in America never happen again. He has stated his position, and he has not wavered since September 11th.
Now we have Jimmy Carter, who gets an award that is mean't to poke the United States in the eye for their aggressive policies to stop terrorism, the Nobel Peace Prize, and he accepts it graciously. (Oh... and he now says Rosalyn is a big reason why he has gotten the award. Touching... pass the Kleenex.)
But Jimmy, in his rush to get the award, has seemed to have forgotten one thing. We still have 3000 dead Americans. We still have Countries that are looking for ways to kill even more Americans. We still have an American President who is trying to keep attacks like September 11th. from ever happening again. Yet there is Jimmy, out there blasting this Administration for their actions to secure a free world, and its people from evil. And now because he's openly blasting this Administration for their policies to provide security, and freedom to people around the world, the Nobel crowd decides to honor Jimmy with this award.
Jimmy, as he continues to attack this Administration, doesn't understand that President Bush has the backing of over 70% of its people. When Jimmy rips into this Administration, he denegrates the American people that support this President, and want to rid the world of terrorism. When Carter speaks ill of American policy, he spits on the graves of the 3000 dead Americans. When Jimmy goes to Cuba and embraces another terrorist, Fidel Castro, and plays baseball with him, he cuts the heart out of those Cubans yearning to be free in Cuba.
You see, its one thing to go to other Countries, and work towards helping them become better nations. Most people think that this in an honorable thing to do. However, to go to other Countries, while intending to help out, yet having press conferences everyday to show the world how nice you are, is entirely different. What's that old saying?... Don't let your left hand know what your right is doing. Carter seems to be going about doing good works, but then making press headlines at the same time; which makes his good works at best, suspect. I don't mind it that Carter goes out of the Country to help others, but what I do find repugnant is the way he continues to get in front of the microphones, and mouth off at my Country, and my President. He not only insults Americans who support this President, but he also slaps the face of every soldier, sailor, and airman, that is putting their life on the line every day to defend the values we cherish so much.
Where is the decency, and the humility?
So Mr. Carter, remember this. When you take this peace prize, and place it proudly on your mantle at home, I hope you remember how many dead Americans you have dishonored by accepting it. I hope you remember how many Americans you have insuulted with your gesture. I hope you remember how many Americans you have angered.
I also hope you and Rosalyn can enjoy it.
You'll be the only ones who do!
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