Jimmy Carter says final goodbye to wife Rosalynn at intimate funeral

john joseph kelly and amy carter

“She was so down to earth, y’all, it was amazing,” Jason Carter said as he shared family stories, including the time when his grandmother made pimento cheese sandwiches and handed them out on a Delta flight. Now 56, Amy is a mom, an artist and a human rights advocate but she’s rarely in the spotlight today after living out her youth and young adulthood in front of the media. In addition to Amy, the former president and first lady also have three sons—John William “Jack” Carter, 76, James Earl “Chip” Carter III, 73 and Donnel Jeffrey “Jeff” Carter, 71. Jimmy announced his grandson’s death the next morning during his Sunday school sermon.

Jamie and his future wife, Anna, began dating in 2017, and welcomed their daughter, Rayna Rose, on March 20, 2019. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the couple eloped on Oct. 22, 2021, and held a formal ceremony, officiated by the groom’s brother Josh, exactly one year later, per their wedding site. Margaret Alicia Carter was born Sept. 23, 1987, in Atlanta, to Chip Carter and his second wife, Ginger Hodges. She married Harold Edward Carter and they had a daughter named Alicia Carter, born Sept. 19, 2009. He also followed in his family’s footsteps into politics but has neither run for nor held public office himself. Instead, he works as an opposition researcher and describes himself as a “policy wonk” in his Twitter bio.

john joseph kelly and amy carter

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s Children

  1. Then she was honored at a service filled with the music of a symphony chorus, a majestic pipe organ and fellow Habitat for Humanity ambassadors Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood.
  2. In his youth, Jack was raised in Plains, Georgia, and worked in the family’s peanut farm warehouse before going to college.
  3. Jeff’s middle son Jeremy died of a sudden heart attack in front of his mother at the age of 28 in 2015.
  4. So, just why were so many, including the former president, dressed in leis?
  5. “My mother was the glue that held our family together through the ups and downs and thicks and thins of our family’s politics,” Chip Carter said.

“Their partnership and love story was a defining feature of her life,” said Amy Carter, who read a love note her father wrote to her mother 75 years ago. The pews filled with political power players, but front and center were her children and dozens of grandchildren and great-grandchildren — all surrounding Jimmy Carter, her partner of 77 years. More than 1,000 people, including a sizeable contingent of Secret Service agents, filled the sanctuary. Former Presidents Donald Trump, Barack Obama and George W. Bush were invited but did not attend. Following Wednesday’s ceremony, Rosalynn Carter was buried in a plot she will one day share with her husband, who entered hospice care in February. The 39th president followed his late wife’s casket on the way out of the church.

“He’s been an amazing grandpa. He’s an amazing person. I absolutely love him. Growing up, he’s been a great influence.” At Sunday school, Jimmy told the class that Jeremy was “a very special child” and “a wonderful young man whom we loved very much.” She received her bachelor’s degree from Duke University in 2000 and received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of California, San Francisco in 2007. Sarah married Brendan Keith Murphy, with whom she has a daughter, Josephine Beverly, born on Dec. 29, 2009. Little is publicly known about Sarah’s life, save for her childhood appearances with her grandparents and her impressive academic record. Jason is married to a teacher and former journalist named Katharine, with whom he shares sons Henry Lewis, born Sept. 2, 2006, and Thomas Clyde, born Dec. 22, 2008.

Amy was politically active from a young age, participating in numerous protests, including ones against U.S. foreign policy in Central America and apartheid in South Africa. In 1986, Amy and several others were arrested for protesting CIA recruitment at the University of Massachusetts Amherst; the New York Times later reported that Amy and 14 other protesters were acquitted of charges of disorderly conduct and trespassing. In summer 1982, she served as a Senate page in Washington, D.C. She graduated from the Woodward Academy and later enrolled at Brown University but was dismissed for poor academic performance in July 1987, according to the Washington Post.

He married Juliette Langford in 1971 and they welcomed two kids, Jason and Sarah Carter, in 1975 and 1978, respectively. Jack is the stepfather of her two children, John Chuldenko and Sarah Chuldenko Reynolds. Jimmy and Rosalynn’s eldest son was born July 3, 1947, in Portsmouth, Virginia, while Jimmy was still serving in the U.S. He later joined the Navy himself after attending Georgia Tech, Emory University and Georgia Southwestern, and earned a degree in nuclear physics from the former, according to The Jimmy Carter Center Presidential Library and Museum.

Rosalynn Carter eulogized before family, friends as husband Jimmy bears silent witness

During the 2012 presidential election, James leaked a video of Mitt Romney stating that 47 percent of Americans “believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it,” and more at a campaign fundraiser. He went on to work for Better Georgia and Media Matters for America and later founded his own political research firm in Atlanta. While stationed in Hawaii, Jimmy and Rosalynn welcomed their son Chip on April 12, 1950, in Honolulu. He worked on the family’s peanut farm upon their move back to the couple’s hometown of Plains, Georgia, in 1953.

Rosalynn Carter’s funeral held in Plains, Georgia, where she and her husband were born

Former President Jimmy Carter was wheeled into the small-town Georgia church where he taught Sunday School to pay his final respects Wednesday to his late wife Rosalynn at an intimate, private funeral service. Jeremy Davis Carter was the son of Jeff Carter and Annette Carter, born June 25, 1987. After graduating from McIntosh High School in Peachtree City, Georgia, he enrolled at West Georgia University in 2005, according to The Citizen. Jeremy stayed mostly out of the spotlight until his young life was cut short at age 28. He died suddenly from a heart attack in front of his mother on Dec. 20, 2015.

Even so, she never stopped being the small-town Southerner whose cooking repertoire leaned heavily on mayonnaise and pimento cheese, Jason Carter said as he told endearing stories about his grandmother. Vernita Sampson, a school bus driver and Plains native, drove a group of area high school students, all wearing Future Farmer of America jackets, to downtown Plains to pay tribute to the former first lady and soak up the history of the day. Jimmy Carter, who is 10 months into home hospice care, watched from his wheelchair, reclining and covered by a blanket featuring his wife’s face. Chip and john joseph kelly and amy carter his sister, Amy, held their father’s hands and were flanked by their brothers, Jeff and Jack.

The Carter family attended Rosalynn’s memorial service in Atlanta on Nov. 28, 2023. During the ceremony, Jack, Chip, Jeff and Amy sweetly consoled their grieving father. “We have a big family now. We have 22 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, 38 of us in all,” he said. According to the Carter Center, Mrs. Carter learned hula dancing while living there, and even once won a hula dancing contest. A couple who are close friends of the Carters and live in Hawaii offered to have the leis shipped to Georgia for the family. So, just why were so many, including the former president, dressed in leis?

After the White House, her early adult years were filled with activism and arrests before eventually getting dismissed from college. He’s also currently working on a project a bit closer to home — updating the White House’s secret collection of music records. As John told NPR, he first learned of the official record collection during a family vacation.

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