Rosalynn Carter Net Worth

What Was Rosalynn Carter's Net Worth?

Rosalynn Carter was an American first lady of the United States who had a net worth of $10 million at the time of her death. Rosalynn Carter was born in August 1927 in Plains, Georgia, and she died on November 19, 2023, at the age of 96. She is best known for her role as first lady, which she served in from 1977 until 1981 when her husband, Jimmy Carter, was president of the United States. During this time she took on various causes, many of which she continued to advocate for in the decades after her tenure.

Rosalynn began dating her future husband, Jimmy, in 1945, and they married in July 1946. This interfered with her plans to attend Georgia State College for Women and study interior design, calling for her to choose marriage over her studies. The couple had four children; three of them were born while their father was in the military, and each was born in a different part of the United States. Rosalynn published the books "First Lady from Plains" (1984), "Everything to Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life" (with Jimmy Carter, 1987), "Helping Yourself Help Others: A Book for Caregivers" (with Susan K. Golant, 1994), "Helping Someone with Mental Illness: A Compassionate Guide for Family, Friends, and Caregivers" (with Susan K. Golant, 1998), and "Within Our Reach: Ending the Mental Health Crisis (with Susan K. Golant and Kathryn E. Cade, 2010). The Carters were closely involved with the nonprofit organization Habitat for Humanity, and Rosalynn established the Institute for Caregivers in 1987. In 1999, Rosalynn and Jimmy were honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Early Life

Rosalynn Carter was born Eleanor Rosalynn Smith on August 18, 1927, in Plains, Georgia. She was the daughter of teacher / postal worker / dressmaker Frances Allethea "Allie" Murray Smith and mechanic / farmer / bus driver Wilburn Edgar Smith, and she had three younger siblings. The family lived in poverty, but Rosalynn said that she wasn't aware of it because no one else around them had money either. During her youth, she enjoyed drawing buildings and thought she might grow up to become an architect. Wilburn died of leukemia when Rosalynn was 13 years old, and she subsequently helped raise her younger siblings and worked for her mother's dressmaking business. After graduating as the valedictorian of her class at Plains High School, Carter attended Georgia Southwestern College, where she was the vice president of her class and a founding member of several clubs, including the Young Democrats. She earned a junior college diploma in 1946. Rosalynn had planned on studying interior design at Georgia State College for Women, but she changed her plans after she married Jimmy Carter.

First Lady of the United States

Jimmy Carter won the 1976 presidential election and assumed office in January 1977. Rosalynn said that she wasn't planning on being a traditional first lady, and she began sitting in on Cabinet meetings at Jimmy's invitation. She took notes during the meetings but didn't speak. Rosalynn explained, "I was there to be informed so that when I traveled across the country, which I did a great deal, and was questioned by the press and other individuals about all areas of government, I'd know what was going on." In March 1977, she became the honorary chairperson of Friendship Force International, a cultural exchange program. She spoke at the 1977 National Women's Conference, and the following year, she hosted the First Lady's Employment Seminar. In early 1977, Rosalynn became the active honorary chair of the President's Commission on Mental Health, and in her first interview as first lady, she stated, "For every person who needs mental-health care to be able to receive it close to his home, and to remove the stigma from mental-health care so people will be free to talk about it and seek help. It's been taboo for so long to admit you had a mental-health problem." In 1980, the Mental Health Systems Act was signed into law with Rosalynn in attendance. Two years into Carter's term, Time magazine called Rosalynn the "second-most powerful person in the United States."

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Activism

After leaving the White House in 1981, Rosalynn and Jimmy founded the nonprofit institution The Carter Center in Atlanta. Rosalynn served on the board of trustees and particularly focused on the center's mental health program. The couple went into debt immediately after the end of Jimmy's presidency, but they paid off their debts with money they made from writing projects and eventually made enough to open The Carter Center. Their first major project after opening the center was helping to broker a peace deal between Israel and its neighboring countries. In 1986, Rosalynn and Jimmy built homes for the poor in Chicago alongside members of Habitat for Humanity. Rosalynn created The Carter Center Mental Health Task Force, and she hosted the Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy annually. She was named an Honorary Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association in 1984, and she was a board member emeritus for the National Mental Health Association. In 1985, she launched the Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy, followed by the Mental Health Program and the Mental Health Task Force in 1991. In 1992, Rosalynn became the chair of the International Women Leaders for Mental Health, and in 1995, the Rosalynn Carter Mental Georgia Health Forum was named in her honor. In 1987, she founded the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving at her alma mater, Georgia Southwestern State University.

Personal Life

In 1945, Rosalynn went on her first date with Jimmy Carter, who was attending the United States Naval Academy at the time. On their first date, he reportedly kissed her for the first time when they were riding together in the backseat of a car driven by the boyfriend of Jimmy's sister Ruth. Rosalynn and Jimmy married in Plains on July 7, 1946, and they welcomed four children together: John William "Jack" Carter (born 1947), James Earl "Chip" Carter III (born 1950), Donnel Jeffrey Carter (born 1952), and Amy Lynn Carter (born 1967). After Jimmy left the U.S. Navy in 1953, Rosalynn helped him run the family peanut farm. After their first three children were born, the couple found out that Rosalynn had physical ailments that could prevent pregnancy. More than a decade later, a large tumor was removed from her uterus. Rosalynn's obstetrician told her that it would be okay to try for another baby, and Amy was born in 1967.

Rosalynn became active in politics after Jimmy was elected to the Georgia State Senate in 1962, and when he was running in the 1970 Georgia gubernatorial election, one of his campaign workers confided in Rosalynn about her daughter's mental illness. This inspired Rosalynn to became an advocate for the mentally ill and their families, and she wrote several books on the subject. She served on the boards of the Friends of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park and the Plains Historic Preservation Trust, and she was a deacon at Maranatha Baptist Church.

Health and Death

Rosalynn underwent surgery for a nonmalignant breast tumor in 1977. In May 2023, it was announced that she had been diagnosed with dementia. The Carter Center stated, "She continues to live happily at home with her husband, enjoying spring in Plains and visits with loved ones." Rosalynn entered hospice care on November 17, 2023, and she passed away at her home two days later at the age of 96. Jimmy said of his beloved wife's death, "Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished. She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me." Jimmy died on December 29, 2024, at the age of 100.

On November 27, 2023, a motorcade traveled from Plains to Americus, Georgia, where Rosalynn's casket was taken out of the Phoebe Sumter Medical Center and put into a hearse. The motorcade made a stop at her alma mater, Georgia Southwestern State University, and the school's president, Neal Weaver, and Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers CEO Jennifer Olsen placed two wreaths near a statue of Rosalynn at the Rosalynn Carter Health and Human Sciences Complex. The motorcade then traveled to Atlanta, where Rosalynn lay in repose at The Carter Center's Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum. A televised tribute service took place at the Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church in Atlanta on November 28th. All the living former first ladies attended the service, as did President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, First Lady Jill Biden, and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. A private funeral was held the following day, and Rosalynn was laid to rest at her home in Plains.

Awards and Honors

Rosalynn received honorary degrees from the University of Notre Dame, Georgia Southwestern State University, Emory University, and Queen's University, and she was a distinguished centennial lecturer at Agnes Scott College (1988–1992) and a Distinguished Fellow at the Emory University Department of Women's Studies (1989– 2018). Carter received the Mental Illness Foundation's Dorothea Dix Award (1988), the Jefferson Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged (1996), and the Institute of Medicine's Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health (2000), and she and Jimmy were honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999 and the American Peace Award in 2009. Rosalynn was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2001.

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