Every living current and former U.S. first lady, including Jill Biden, Melania Trump, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Laura Bush, attended the funeral service for former first lady Rosalynn Carter.
The wife of former President Jimmy Carter died on Nov. 19 at her home in Georgia at age 96. A memorial took place Tuesday at Glenn Memorial Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
Others who attended include President Carter, President Joe Biden, and former President Bill Clinton. Former Presidents Donald Trump, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush did not attend the event.
The former presidents along with then-President Trump appeared at the Washington funeral for former President George H.W. Bush, who died in late 2018.
The Carter family said the former first lady had specifically wanted Melania Trump to know she was invited to her funeral. “My grandmother campaigned against and voted against some of their husbands,” said Jason Carter, one of Carters’ grandchildren, according to the paper. “But she believed that there are some things that are more important than politics.”
President Carter’s Appearance
Notably, President Carter’s appearance at his wife’s funeral was the first public appearance he has made in months. The former president, 99, entered hospice care in February.Using a wheelchair and dressed in a dark suit and tie, he entered the Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church and was helped to the front row near his wife’s flower-covered casket, where he sat flanked by his children.
Folded across his lap was a blue-and-white blanket, embroidered with a smiling portrait of his wife. The couple was married for 77 years.
As first lady, Rosalynn Carter played a prominent role in his presidency from 1977 to 1981, and in his humanitarian work after the couple left the White House. She died at age 96.
President Carter did not address mourners during the service. Chip Carter kissed him on the forehead after delivering a tribute to his mother, calling her “the glue” that held the family together.
The former president has faced a number of health issues, including cancer, and decided to end medical intervention and enter hospice care at his home in Plains, Georgia, nine months ago. His wife, who had been diagnosed with dementia, joined him in hospice care only a few days before her death.
The Carters were the longest-married U.S. presidential couple, having wed in 1946 when he was 21 and she was 18.
During the memorial, their daughter, Amy Carter, read from a letter President Carter sent to Rosalynn while he was serving in the Navy.
“My darling, every time I’ve ever been away from you, I have been thrilled when I returned to discover just how wonderful you are,” he wrote. “When I see you, I fall in love all over again.”
The Carters made their last joint public appearance in September when they attended the Plains Peanut Festival in their rural hometown, both dressed in clothes bearing the logo of Habitat for Humanity, the non-profit group focused on providing affordable housing that the couple has long supported.
As late as 2019, when he was 95 years old, he worked for several days a year alongside his wife as a volunteer for Habitat. “He’s coming to the end, and he’s very, very physically diminished,” Jason Carter told the New York Times shortly before Tuesday’s service. “He has been this moral rock for so many people, but she really was that rock for him.”
After the funeral, the former first lady will be buried after a private graveside service in a plot the couple will share, visible from the front porch of the home they built before Jimmy Carter’s first political campaign in 1962.
Meanwhile, Joe and Jill Biden “were able to express their condolences directly to the Carter family,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday, adding that the Biden family holds “the entire Carter family close to their hearts.”
