Jimmy, Rosalynn Carter mark 75 years of ‘full partnership’ | Nation & World

ATLANTA (AP) – The young midshipman needed a date one night when he was home from the US Naval Academy, so his younger sister introduced him to a family friend who already had a crush.

Almost eight decades later, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are still together in the same tiny town where they were born, grew up, and had their first outing. In between, she traveled the world as a naval officer and military consort, American president and first lady, and finally as an ambassador for human rights and public health.

“It’s a full partnership,” said the 39th president of the Associated Press during a joint interview prior to the couple’s 75th wedding anniversary on July 7th.

It will mark another milestone for the longest-married presidential couple in American history. At 96, Carter is also the longest-lived of the 45 men who served as CEO. Yet while he has reached this peak, since retiring from the Oval Office in 1981, Carter has often said that the most important decision he has ever made is not as head of state, commander in chief, or even executive officer of a nuclear submarine the early years of the cold war.

Rather, she fell in love with Eleanor Rosalynn Smith in 1945 and married her the following summer. “My biggest secret is to marry the right person for a permanent marriage,” said Carter.

The ninety-year-olds – she is now 93 – gave a few other tips for lasting attachment.

“There must be reconciliation and communication between the two spouses every day,” said the former president, explaining that he and Rosalynn, both devout Christians, read the Bible together every night – something they have been doing for years, even when apart are through their travels. “We don’t sleep with some remaining differences between us,” he said.

Rosalynn Carter pointed out the importance of finding common interests. Even now she says, “Jimmy and I are always looking for things to do together.” Still, she emphasized a caveat: “Everyone (person) should have some space. It’s really important.”

As the first lady, Rosalynn Carter created her own identity while supporting her husband. Building on her predecessor’s efforts to highlight special concerns, she worked in her own office in the East Wing, setting a standard for first ladies by working with her husband’s West Wing advisors on key legislation, particularly those related to health care and mental health Health. She continued that focus when the couple built the Carter Center in Atlanta after years in the White House.

Certainly a 75-year marriage wasn’t seamless, the couple admits.

Jimmy was originally on his way to becoming an admiral, not commander in chief, and Rosalynn cherished her life beyond the Plains, which then as now was less than a thousand people. But when James Earl Carter Sr. fell ill and died in 1953, his son abandoned his marine career and decided that the family would return to rural Georgia.

The former president wrote that, in retrospect, he found it unthinkable not to discuss such a life-changing decision with his wife, who was dissatisfied with the move. Now they see their partnership blossoming in this challenging time.

“We developed a partnership when we were in the agriculture industry and it continued when Jimmy got involved in politics,” Rosalynn Carter told AP. “I knew more about the business on paper than he did. He would take my advice, ”she added, getting a laugh and confirmation from her husband.

Jimmy Carter also did not ask permission from Rosalynn to make his first offer for office a few years later. In this case, she was on board anyway.

“My wife is much more political,” he said.

She interjected, “I love it. I love campaigning. I had the best time. I’ve been to every state in the United States. The last time we ran, I fought solidly every day. “

That didn’t help avoid Republican Ronald Reagan’s defeat in 1980. But it cemented Rosalynn – who had originally given up her own college chance when she married at the age of 18 – as an equal partner to the leader of the Free World. And it marked Jimmy Carter’s development as a spouse.

Since then he has been an outspoken voice for women’s rights, also within Christianity. Carter left the Southern Baptist Convention in 2006 condemning what he called the “rigid” views that “subjugated” women in the Church and in their own marriages.

The former president reaffirmed these views and advocated recognition of same-sex marriage by the Church. “It will continue to divide,” he said. “But the church is evolving.”

The Carters plan to celebrate their own wedding milestone with a party in Plains a few days after their wedding anniversary. Decades away from opening balls and state dinners, Sumter County’s most famous residents said they had mixed feelings about the spotlight.

“We invited too many people,” said Rosalynn Carter with a laugh. “I actually pray for some rejections and regrets.”

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