Rosalynn Carter’s Cause of Death: About Her Early Life

Rosalynn Carter’s Cause of Death: The Carter Center says Rosalynn Carter “died peacefully, with family by her side” at her home in Plains, Georgia, on November 19, 2023, at 2:10 p.m. The official reason why Rosalynn Carter died has not been made public. In May 2023, the former first lady’s family said in a Carter Center statement that she had been diagnosed with dementia before she died.

A few months later, on November 17, her grandson Jason Carter told everyone that she and her husband would be getting hospice care at home. There is no known cure for dementia, and it may end in death. Rosalynn Carter had surgery in 1977 to get rid of a lump in her breast.

In 1977, when Rosalynn Carter was 49 years old, doctors took out a noncancerous growth from her breast. Since the lump was found during a “gynecological checkup,” the mother of four “went into surgery right away.”

Rosalynn Carter’s Cause of Death: What Did She Do?

During Jimmy Carter’s presidency, Rosalynn Carter was first lady of the United States. She even attended the president’s cabinet meetings. She also fought for care and treatment for mental health problems and helped her husband set up the Presidential Commission on Mental Health.

Elvis and Priscilla on their wedding day, Las Vegas, 1967. pic.twitter.com/sw6g2nJBPd

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Jimmy spent most of his time during that time focused on the Iran hostage crisis, but Rosalynn worked hard to help him get re-elected.

After Jimmy Carter left office, Rosalynn became an active humanitarian. She often worked with her husband to build homes for Habitat for Humanity and with their Carter Center organization, which works to promote human rights, democracy, disease prevention, and mental health care around the world.

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The Early Years of Rosalynn Carter

Eleanor Rosalynn Smith was born on August 18, 1927, in Plains, Georgia. Wilburn Edgar Smith was a farmer, bus driver, and auto mechanic, and Frances Allethea “Allie” Murray Smith was a teacher, dressmaker, and postal worker. They had four children, and she was the oldest.

William Jerrold “Jerry” Smith was an engineer who lived from 1929 to 2003, and Murray Lee Smith was a preacher and teacher who lived from 1932 to 2003. Because she was friendly with both the Smith and Carter families, her sister Lillian Allethea (Smith) Wall (born 1936), who was also known as Allethea, was named after both her mother and Lillian Gordy Carter.

Allethea owns a real estate business. Rosa Lynn was named after Rosa Wise Murray, her maternal grandmother. A lot of American Brazilians, called Confederados, left the US after the Civil War and moved to the Brazilian Empire. Smith’s granduncle W.S. Wise was one of them.

Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn began dating in 1945, when he was a student at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. She was interested in him after seeing a picture of him in his Annapolis uniform. Jimmy gave Rosalynn a kiss that scared her while they were riding in the backseat of Ruth Carter Stapleton’s boyfriend’s car.

Rosalynn has never let a guy do this on their first date before. Rosalynn agreed to marry Jimmy when she went to Annapolis with his parents in February 1946. The couple planned to get married in July but kept their relationship a secret.

Rosalynn didn’t want to tell her mother that she was going to get married instead of finishing school. They got married in Plains on July 7, 1946.

Rosalynn had planned to go to Georgia State College for Women to study interior design, but she had to put her plans on hold when she got married. They had four kids: John William “Jack” (born 1947), James Earl “Chip” III (born 1950), Donnel Jeffrey “Jeff” (born 1952), and Amy Lynn (born 1967).