Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s Love Story: From Small Town Sweethearts to the White House

In October 2019, Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, became the longest-married presidential couple in American history, and Friday marks their 77^th wedding anniversary. The hometown sweethearts’ seven-decade relationship has seen them travel from their rural roots to the highest office in the land and beyond. Even now, as Jimmy remains in good spirits while in hospice care, the pair are there to support one another.

Jimmy and Rosalynn came from a Georgia town of 600 people

Born in 1924—the first president to be born in a hospital—James Earl “Jimmy” Carter Jr. was the eldest of James and Bessie “Lillian” Carter’s four children. James was a successful local businessman, and Lillian worked long hours as a nurse. The Carters raised their family in and around Plains, Georgia, a small town of approximately 600 people at the time of Jimmy’s birth.

Wilbur and Allie Smith were neighbors of the Carters, and in the summer of 1927, Lillian helped deliver their first child, Eleanor Rosalynn. Jimmy, then a 3-year-old, and newborn Rosalynn met just a couple days later for the first time. Later, Rosalynn became a close childhood friend of Ruth Carter, Jimmy’s younger sister.

Like elsewhere in America, the Great Depression hit Plains hard, and the Smiths’ already fragile economic situation worsened when Rosalynn’s father died when she was 13. She began working to support the family alongside her mother, who held a series of jobs, impressing on her daughter the importance of hard work and independence. Despite her workload, Rosalynn was an excellent student, graduating near the top of her high school class and set on attending college, fulfilling her father’s wishes for his children.

Also a good student, Jimmy harbored dreams of moving beyond Plains and, inspired by a maternal uncle who had attended the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, set his sights on a military career.

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Jimmy knew he was going to marry Rosalynn after their first date

Although Rosalynn had known Jimmy all her life, it wasn’t until 1945 that romance blossomed. She was a freshman at Georgia Southwestern College, nearby their hometown. Jimmy, following stints at that same school and the Georgia Institute of Technology, had fulfilled his dream and was entering his final year at Annapolis. The town was proud of their native son, and as Rosalynn would later write, she had taken notice of photos of Carter in his military uniform at his family home.

When Jimmy returned home that summer, he too took notice of the pretty, shy 17-year-old. One night, when plans with another girl fell through, Jimmy spotted his sister and Rosalynn walking down the street and impulsively asked her to the movies, after which the two shared their first kiss. Jimmy was immediately smitten after their first date, telling his mother that he had met his future wife.

The whirlwind courtship continued when they both returned to school, and that winter, Jimmy proposed. Initially concerned about how fast the relationship was moving and wishing to finish college first, Rosalynn said no. But Jimmy persisted, and when Rosalynn visited Annapolis that spring, they became engaged, with Jimmy gifting her a compact engraved with the letters “ILYTG,” an acronym for a Carter family saying “I love you the goodest.” The couple was married at the Plains Methodist Church on July 7, 1946, just weeks after Jimmy’s graduation.

The Carters spent their early married years on the move

Shortly after their wedding, the Carters moved to Norfolk, Virginia, for Jimmy’s first naval assignment, where Rosalynn would give birth to the first of their four children. Subsequent deployments took the family to Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, before they put down roots in New York.

In this circa 1950s photo, Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter are surrounded by their sons (from left) Chip, Jack, and Jeff.

Rosalynn adapted easily to the frequent moves and enjoyed her time as a naval wife. When Jimmy’s father died in 1953, he decided to resign from the Navy and return home to run the family’s interests, including a peanut farm. Rosalynn initially balked, unhappy with the prospect of returning home to Plains. As Jimmy later wrote in a memoir, communication between the two broke down, as Rosalynn “avoided talking to me as much as possible.”

She would later describe this period as one of the rockiest in their marriage, saying she believed, “the best part of my life had ended,” as she struggled to find her own role and to put herself on equal footing with her husband. She eventually found both when she began helping Jimmy run the farm, taking over the business’s finances and helping it turn a profit.

Rosalynn played an important role in Jimmy’s political career

Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter attend an Atlanta fundraiser for his 1976 presidential run on February 14, 1976.

Now settled in Georgia, the couple became involved in the civic and religious communities, with Jimmy teaching Sunday School at a local Baptist Church (a role he continued until 2019). In 1962, he won a seat in the Georgia State Senate, and following an unsuccessful run for Congress, set his sights on the governorship in 1970. Overcoming her shy nature, Rosalynn campaigned tirelessly on her husband’s behalf, crisscrossing the state. Jimmy’s victory saw her take on a new role as Georgia’s first lady, where she began working on causes she would champion for the rest of her life, including mental health.

She took to the campaign trail again when Carter announced his candidacy for the 1976 presidential election, visiting more than 40 states. When Carter won, they and their youngest child, Amy, moved to the White House, where Rosalynn, breaking with tradition, became a close advisor to her husband.

As first lady, Rosalynn was the first presidential spouse to have her own office in the East Wing. She sat in on Cabinet meetings, advised on staff and personnel moves, served as an envoy on overseas trips, and joined former first ladies Betty Ford and Lady Bird Johnson in the unsuccessful effort to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. So closely aligned were the couple that Jimmy referred to Rosalynn, who he’d nicknamed Rosa, as a “perfect extension of himself.”

They continued their work together in the post-presidency years

Carter’s 1980 reelection defeat was devastating to both Jimmy and Rosalynn. They returned home to Georgia to the modest two-bedroom ranch house in Plains where they’d lived before Carter had scaled the political heights. The couple continued to champion their causes and humanitarian efforts, through both the Carter Center and their work with Habitat for Humanity, through which they built more than 4,000 homes around the world. In 2002, Jimmy was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his decades of work supporting democracy and human rights.

Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter have dinner at a friend’s house in Plains, Georgia, in August 2018.

In March 2019, Jimmy became the longest-living president in American history, and that fall, on October 17, Jimmy and Rosalynn surpassed George H.W. and Barbara Bush’s record for longest presidential presidential marriage. The Carters have now been married for 77 years.

Jimmy’s 2015 cancer diagnosis shook the couple, who later said in interviews that the ordeal brought them even closer together. Now, they are facing Jimmy’s final days together; the 98-year-old began receiving hospice care at home this February. “They’re just meeting with family right now, but they’re doing it in the best possible way: the two of them together at home,” grandson Jason Carter said in May. “Their faith is really grounding in this moment.”

They’re ready for what comes next, too. Back when Jimmy was being treated for cancer, they created a fitting plan: Both of them will be buried under a willow tree on the grounds of their house in Plains, where their stories began.