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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJimmy and Rosalynn
In 1927 in Plains, Georgia, a three-year-old boy named Jimmy Carter lived next door to an auto mechanic, Francis Smith, and his pregnant wife, Allie. That August, Allie went into labor, and Jimmy's mother, a nurse, helped deliver her daughter. The next day, little Jimmy went next door and peered into the crib. The baby inside was named Rosalynn.
As a teenager, "Rosie" had a fierce crush on Jimmy, but he was three years older, and apparently took little notice of the shy kid next door. During WWII, he left town to join the Naval Academy. One day in the summer of 1945, Jimmy returned to Plains on vacation. While riding in the rumble seat of a friend's Ford, he looked toward the United Methodist church and saw Rosie, now seventeen and all grown up, standing out front. He was gobsmacked. Jimmy hopped out of the rumble seat and asked her to the movies. She jumped right in. He came home that night and told his mother that the baby she'd delivered seventeen years earlier was the girl he was going to marry.
This week, Jimmy and Rosalynn will celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary. Theirs is the longest marriage in presidential history. They have known each other for almost one hundred years.
SoonerPride
(12,286 posts)abqtommy
(14,118 posts)LSparkle
(11,660 posts)Humble, décent ...
After his term ended, he built homes for the needy and tried to make elections fair all over the world.
Hes the only President Ive ever heard speak in person and Im glad. Congratulations to him and Rosalyn simply the best!!
brer cat
(24,621 posts)They are so young there, full of hope for the future, and seemingly confident that they would be blessed.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,906 posts)I doubt that will happen, but I am in total awe of Jimmy Carter and his wife. They are two people I absolutely look up to.
Mr.Bill
(24,334 posts)Habitat for Humanity and your wish may come true. What he does there is all about raising funds.
demtenjeep
(31,997 posts)wonderful man
Chili
(1,725 posts)So beautiful, this couple. He was my first presidential vote. I cried that night in 1980. I wrote a letter and sent it to the WH. He answered it a few weeks later, with his signature. He had to have really signed it because the ink had slipped just a little. I will never forget this great man and the love of his life.
mountain grammy
(26,656 posts)Jimmy was the best president in my lifetime. He saw the future and tried to change it.
Trueblue1968
(17,240 posts)Queen Elizabeth should Knight our wonderful, astounding president.
Trueblue1968
(17,240 posts)betsuni
(25,670 posts)Can't help but get angry at those people (like yesterday, one of them running for office) calling Democrats establishment, "in-crowd," wealthy elites, "coastal elites" who ignore the working class, don't "motivate" or "inspire" working people because they have no vision and no message, "corporate Democrats" installed by Wall Street and the DNC or whatever, etc.
Carter/Clinton/Obama/candidate Hillary Clinton/Joe Biden: working/middle class backgrounds all. And who cares anyway. It's what you do with your life. FDR didn't grow up without running water, that's for damn sure. Ugh. Anyone who calls Democrats "ideologically bankrupt" is a bowl full of something. This anti-Democratic propaganda pisses me off.
I find it ironic that here was Carter, an authentic, 100% genuine born-again Christian, and what did the evangelicals do? Follow Supply Side Jesus to Reagan and the Republicans.