In 2015, I had the privilege of sitting down with Rosalynn Carter, the former First Lady, for an in-depth conversation on behalf of the National Women’s Hall of Fame oral history project.
I would like to share the audio of that conversation with you today — the day of her passing.
When we spoke, she was 87 — still traveling the world and advocating for the causes that animated her life. In the coming days, you will hear from many people who knew Mrs. Carter well. But to listen to her reflect on her own life, in her own voice, provides a unique window on one of the most influential First Ladies in U.S. history.
You can listen to our informal and wide-ranging conversation by clicking the photo above, or by clicking play on the Spotify podcast link below.
Here are just a few of the highlights.
The Teachers
Mrs. Carter recounts the story of her remarkable journey from a town with 600 people, one square mile, where she was the only girl her age — to the world stage.
She tells us about the childhood teachers who “opened my eyes to the world” — and how they accomplished it.
Mental Health
She shares how her life-long advocacy of mental health care began when her husband was campaigning for governor.
Nearly every day on the campaign trail, “… somebody would ask me what my husband would do for a mentally ill family member if he were elected governor.” And so, Rosalynn Carter, as the First Lady of Georgia, got to work.
We established 134 community mental health centers. They were not everything. They were not comprehensive. But some of them were just a spot on a main street, an obvious place in a town where people could go to get information about where to go for help.
But due to the stigma over mental health issues at the time, few people wanted to join her task force “because they didn’t want to be identified with the issue.”
That did not diminish her motivation. In our conversation, she describes the results of her campaign and how she elevated it in the White House.
Equal Rights
Women’s rights issues were not on Rosalynn Carter’s radar, until her two daughters-in-law came along.
There was a little red barn … at the governor’s mansion. So they lived right there with us. And so we would talk about the issues all the time and what we could do. And that obviously is how I became so interested in the Equal Rights Amendment.
She shares the backstory of her role in the battle for the Equal Rights Amendment, and the misogyny she experienced from certain male legislators.
Full Partnership
Mrs. Carter takes us behind the scenes of what she describes as the “full partnership” that she and Jimmy shared during the presidency and throughout their lives; why he asked her to sit in on his cabinet meetings; and the conversations they’d have at the end of each day on the Truman Balcony of the White House.
“I’ve done things in my life I never thought I would do,” she told me, “because Jimmy thought I could do them.”
And she is confident that Jimmy would not have won the presidency, were it not for her efforts, and the entire family’s work, on the campaign.
It helps when two partners believe in each other.