Jimmy Two: America in Carter's Second Term
- Thread starter Vidal
- Start date
Rosalynn will definitely be missed. God Bless Her, and my heart goes out to Jimmy.
Rest in Peace Mrs. Carter. Like your husband you blazed a trail of public service, kindness, compassion and decency in a world that seems to have short supply of all three. May the angels above look after you.
My thoughts also go to Jimmy Carter who has lost his soulmate🥺😭
My thoughts also go to Jimmy Carter who has lost his soulmate🥺😭
14.5. Rosalynn
Earlier this year, the Carter Center announced that its co-founder, Rosalynn Smith Carter, had been diagnosed with dementia. A few months later, they announced she was receiving hospice care. The entire time, her husband, Jimmy, had been receiving at-home hospice care himself. These two American giants have spent the year nearing their end, but they have also been witness to an extraordinary outpouring of love and a reconsideration of their legacies.
Rosalynn is one of our most unique first ladies. She was a trusted but quiet presence. She was the first First Lady to stand in for her husband for an official act, traveling to represent him and the nation internationally. She was the honorary co-chair of his important mental health commission, which has been an important part of his presidential record, especially in this modern reconsideration of the Carter White House. It remains a hot button political issue today, and although the legislation he passed was imperfect, it marks the last time the federal government really tried to pass a comprehensive federal investment in the mental health care infrastructure. That bill was a product of the work Rosalynn's mental health commission did.
Her work in this space has been widely praised in the days after her death, and we are all wise to consider it. But Rosalynn was also a trusted political advisor to her husband, and while future presidential staffs often dreaded the First Lady meddling in political affairs, the Carter team welcomed it because they knew that Rosalynn offered a gentle yet wise counsel. We were lucky to have her service as First Lady for four years. We have also been lucky to have her decades of work after leaving the White House -- her advocacy, her writing, her action.
On Sunday, November 19th, Rosalynn Carter passed away at the age of 96. She had never known life without Jimmy Carter. When she was just days old, the nurse who delivered her, Jimmy's mother, brought the future president to meet her at crib side. Theirs has been a storybook romance, yes, but it has also been one of the most consequential partnerships our country has ever known. I knew I wanted to honor her in this thread, and so a short chapter dedicated to her influence on the Carter White House and this alternate America seemed the perfect fit. I hope you will enjoy it and reflect on the legacy of this incredible woman.
It was not originally planned and so I am consider it "Chapter 14 1/2," but it is very much "canon" as far as our story is concerned.
My thoughts are with President Carter, the entire Carter family, and the good people of Plains, Georgia, who have lost one of their own.
ROSALYNN
“When I announced my focus on mental health as first lady of Georgia in 1971, none but five mental health advocates in the state wanted to be involved with the issue.”
-Rosalynn Carter
September 1, 1981
Community health center opening — Clanton, Alabama
Fob James was wearing a brown suit, and although it was one of his nicer ones, it still hung off him a bit too loosely, giving him a sort of frumpy look. He was wearing a nice suit because it was a particularly important day. Fob James was a few minutes away from welcoming First Lady Rosalynn Carter to his state for a very special announcement.
In 1980, Congress had passed the Mental Health Systems Act, a response to the President's Commission on Mental Health, of which Rosalynn Carter served as the honorary chair. The legislation had several priorities, most notably money to allow states to transition away from large institutions in favor of community mental health centers. As Governor, Fob James had already been focused on work around mental health, and so he was eager to take the federal dollars and put them to use in his state.
Now, he was bringing the First Lady of the United States to Clanton, Alabama, a small city and the county seat of Chilton County, which President Carter had won in 1976 but had only narrowly hung onto in his 1980 reelection campaign. Fob James wanted the people here to see how the government could actually be of service to them — like it was supposed to be.
James stood outside the facility which had been converted into a new community health center, his arms hanging, his hands folded, watching as the First Lady’s motorcade rolled up to the front door. He was joined by some county and local officials as well as the center’s small staff of four people. The motorcade came to a stop and a Secret Service agent (yes, in this small city!) stepped out to open the door for Rosalynn Carter.
And out she stepped, the breeze gently fluttering the wisps of her otherwise perfectly groomed hair. Her golden curls bouncing magnificently in the Alabama sunlight. She was a steel magnolia, and she was not lost or uncomfortable in a small, rural Southern town. It was not all that different from the one in which she’d been raised. She smiled and stretched out a hand to the governor, who quickly welcomed her and introduced her to some of the others around them. Then, they headed in for a tour of the facility.
It wasn’t much, but Rosalynn had long advocated that these centers didn’t have to fit people’s stereotypes about them. In Georgia, under her husband’s governorships, they’d set up some that were no more than a room with a phone and a person staffing it who could talk through an issue someone was having whenever they called. She met the medical staff and some volunteers who were helping out in the facility, and then, they headed outside for a ribbon cutting and a press conference. Clanton had never had a press conference that elicited national media attention, but that was the difference the First Lady could make. She traveled with her own crop of reporters to document her movements, and that meant she could spotlight issues and communities that were usually out of reach or, more often than not, not of interest to larger outlets.
The press conference began with the Mayor of Clanton, who introduced the director of the facility, other staffers, and then turned it over to Governor James, who quickly heaped praise on the First Lady for coming and thanked the Congressional delegation in Alabama that had helped secure the funds.
When it was Rosalynn’s turn, the First Lady stepped up to the microphone. She thanked the dignitaries in attendance, and then she explained the origins of her concern for mental health: “I did become involved in campaigning for Jimmy the first time he ran for Governor. He ran once and lost. He was actually in the State Senate running for Congress, and our leading Democratic candidate had a heart attack and left Lester Maddox— are you familiar with Lester Maddox, our only Democratic candidate? Jimmy went to Atlanta because nobody had announced to run against Lester Maddox. We had a Republican candidate, first time in 100 years, running for Governor. So Jimmy went to Atlanta to see who was going to run and nobody was. Lester Maddox was very popular, you remember, this was in the late 1960s.
“I was going home from our peanut warehouse. I was keeping our business while Jimmy was gone. His mother lived about halfway between the office and my house, and she called me, and Jimmy was on the phone. So I went in and he said, ‘Are you sitting down?’ I said ‘No.’ He said, ‘Well, you better get a chair.’ Then, he told me he was going to run for Governor. Well, it was all very sudden. We only had, I think, maybe seven or eight weeks to campaign. But you couldn’t just let him have it, no, it was big segregationists. So the first time I had campaigned, he was in the Senate but I had done telephone calls and things. But I’d never done any campaigning.
“Everywhere I went people asked me what my husband would do with someone with mental illness. I kept getting the question, and it was a time when the community mental health centers acted in the past. People were being moved out of the huge institutions, but the community mental health centers had not been established yet. So they were going from the institutions just into the communities with no services. I did meet that woman. But it was after I had just heard it day in and day out, and I became really distressed about it.” [1]
She also outlined how she had helped pass the Mental Health Services Act of 1980 and now explained how it was helping advance a new model of providing mental health care.
On that day, with the bright sun beaming in her face and the gentle breeze fluttering her papers, Rosalynn realized well how quickly their time in the White House was passing them by. They would have opportunities after Jimmy left the White House. They could start an international organization; they could write books; they could build his library, but they would never have the influence they had now. Her mouth read her speech, but her mind considered all that there was left to do. Not just treating patients, but preventing mental health issues in the first place, and reducing the stigma around mental health so that everyone who needed treatment was willing to receive it. One day, she believed, mental health issues would be treated just as physical issues were treated.
After the speeches, Rosalynn cut the ceremonial ribbon with an oversized pair of scissors, and then she and the Governor and the other dignitaries went inside for a tour.
When the tour was over and Rosalynn was back in the car, she phoned Pat Caddell. “Pat,” she told him, “we just had a great event in Chilton County, Alabama.” Her aides couldn’t hear Pat’s response, but they assumed he had repeated back the percentage Jimmy had received there during the ’80 election because Mrs. Carter replied, “That’s right. Yes. Nearly lost it. I want you to work on something — a strategy memo — about how we can be using the on-the-ground impact we’re making as part of our political message.” There was a pause. “Yes,” she told him, “before the midterms. We need to make sure our incumbents have wins — these tangible wins — that they can use to show this government is helping people.” Caddell spoke for a few minutes, and then, finally, “Yes, exactly. Thank you, Pat. Get that to me as soon as you can.”
Those who did not consider the political acumen of the First Lady were doomed to underestimating the Carter administration.
The motorcade snaked its way through the unpaved streets of Clanton before finding the highway and racing towards the airport. As she bounded up the steps into her plane, aides scrambled to get her the evening editions of the paper, placing them neatly on her desk for the return flight home.
No sooner had she entered the plane, Rosalynn asked for an update on the day’s events in Washington. A staffer ticked through everything, including an important press conference on Capitol Hill. Top Senate Democrats had announced major movement towards healthcare reform. Rosalynn wanted all of the details and as the plane raced down the runway and lifted its nose into the sky, she reviewed the report in the paper. Then, methodically, one by one, she phoned the members of the president’s mental health commission on her return flight home. Yes, she wanted to let them know about the day’s event, but more importantly she wanted them to think. Jimmy was moving healthcare legislation through the Congress. What did they need to make sure was included for mental health? Whatever it was, she wanted to know. She would ensure it got in the final bill.
On each call, Rosalynn took careful notes, quickly filling a fresh legal pad with pages of ideas — ways to strengthen the Mental Health Systems Act, but also ideas for how to better handle general healthcare coverage in order to ensure access was widespread for all people. Their report had identified underserved communities — people of color, rural Americans, children. Rosalynn wanted to make sure that whatever changes came to the overall national system did not complicate the administration’s efforts on mental health.
That night, she entered the White House Residence to find a tired president already in bed, listening to a poem recited by Dylan Thomas. [2] As Rosalynn walked in, he smiled and welcomed her home. Rosalynn was thrilled to see him, but as soon as she washed her face, changed into her pajamas, and joined Jimmy in bed, she turned to face him. “Let’s talk about this healthcare bill,” she began.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
[1] Taken from Rosalynn Carter’s remarks here: https://www.jfklibrary.org/events-a...s/rosalynn-carter-on-the-mental-health-crisis
[2] A favorite ritual: https://www.nytimes.com/1976/07/23/...eekly-publishing-what-jimmy-carter-reads.html
Rosalynn is one of our most unique first ladies. She was a trusted but quiet presence. She was the first First Lady to stand in for her husband for an official act, traveling to represent him and the nation internationally. She was the honorary co-chair of his important mental health commission, which has been an important part of his presidential record, especially in this modern reconsideration of the Carter White House. It remains a hot button political issue today, and although the legislation he passed was imperfect, it marks the last time the federal government really tried to pass a comprehensive federal investment in the mental health care infrastructure. That bill was a product of the work Rosalynn's mental health commission did.
Her work in this space has been widely praised in the days after her death, and we are all wise to consider it. But Rosalynn was also a trusted political advisor to her husband, and while future presidential staffs often dreaded the First Lady meddling in political affairs, the Carter team welcomed it because they knew that Rosalynn offered a gentle yet wise counsel. We were lucky to have her service as First Lady for four years. We have also been lucky to have her decades of work after leaving the White House -- her advocacy, her writing, her action.
On Sunday, November 19th, Rosalynn Carter passed away at the age of 96. She had never known life without Jimmy Carter. When she was just days old, the nurse who delivered her, Jimmy's mother, brought the future president to meet her at crib side. Theirs has been a storybook romance, yes, but it has also been one of the most consequential partnerships our country has ever known. I knew I wanted to honor her in this thread, and so a short chapter dedicated to her influence on the Carter White House and this alternate America seemed the perfect fit. I hope you will enjoy it and reflect on the legacy of this incredible woman.
It was not originally planned and so I am consider it "Chapter 14 1/2," but it is very much "canon" as far as our story is concerned.
My thoughts are with President Carter, the entire Carter family, and the good people of Plains, Georgia, who have lost one of their own.
ROSALYNN
“When I announced my focus on mental health as first lady of Georgia in 1971, none but five mental health advocates in the state wanted to be involved with the issue.”
-Rosalynn Carter
September 1, 1981
Community health center opening — Clanton, Alabama
Fob James was wearing a brown suit, and although it was one of his nicer ones, it still hung off him a bit too loosely, giving him a sort of frumpy look. He was wearing a nice suit because it was a particularly important day. Fob James was a few minutes away from welcoming First Lady Rosalynn Carter to his state for a very special announcement.
In 1980, Congress had passed the Mental Health Systems Act, a response to the President's Commission on Mental Health, of which Rosalynn Carter served as the honorary chair. The legislation had several priorities, most notably money to allow states to transition away from large institutions in favor of community mental health centers. As Governor, Fob James had already been focused on work around mental health, and so he was eager to take the federal dollars and put them to use in his state.
Now, he was bringing the First Lady of the United States to Clanton, Alabama, a small city and the county seat of Chilton County, which President Carter had won in 1976 but had only narrowly hung onto in his 1980 reelection campaign. Fob James wanted the people here to see how the government could actually be of service to them — like it was supposed to be.
James stood outside the facility which had been converted into a new community health center, his arms hanging, his hands folded, watching as the First Lady’s motorcade rolled up to the front door. He was joined by some county and local officials as well as the center’s small staff of four people. The motorcade came to a stop and a Secret Service agent (yes, in this small city!) stepped out to open the door for Rosalynn Carter.
And out she stepped, the breeze gently fluttering the wisps of her otherwise perfectly groomed hair. Her golden curls bouncing magnificently in the Alabama sunlight. She was a steel magnolia, and she was not lost or uncomfortable in a small, rural Southern town. It was not all that different from the one in which she’d been raised. She smiled and stretched out a hand to the governor, who quickly welcomed her and introduced her to some of the others around them. Then, they headed in for a tour of the facility.
It wasn’t much, but Rosalynn had long advocated that these centers didn’t have to fit people’s stereotypes about them. In Georgia, under her husband’s governorships, they’d set up some that were no more than a room with a phone and a person staffing it who could talk through an issue someone was having whenever they called. She met the medical staff and some volunteers who were helping out in the facility, and then, they headed outside for a ribbon cutting and a press conference. Clanton had never had a press conference that elicited national media attention, but that was the difference the First Lady could make. She traveled with her own crop of reporters to document her movements, and that meant she could spotlight issues and communities that were usually out of reach or, more often than not, not of interest to larger outlets.
The press conference began with the Mayor of Clanton, who introduced the director of the facility, other staffers, and then turned it over to Governor James, who quickly heaped praise on the First Lady for coming and thanked the Congressional delegation in Alabama that had helped secure the funds.
When it was Rosalynn’s turn, the First Lady stepped up to the microphone. She thanked the dignitaries in attendance, and then she explained the origins of her concern for mental health: “I did become involved in campaigning for Jimmy the first time he ran for Governor. He ran once and lost. He was actually in the State Senate running for Congress, and our leading Democratic candidate had a heart attack and left Lester Maddox— are you familiar with Lester Maddox, our only Democratic candidate? Jimmy went to Atlanta because nobody had announced to run against Lester Maddox. We had a Republican candidate, first time in 100 years, running for Governor. So Jimmy went to Atlanta to see who was going to run and nobody was. Lester Maddox was very popular, you remember, this was in the late 1960s.
“I was going home from our peanut warehouse. I was keeping our business while Jimmy was gone. His mother lived about halfway between the office and my house, and she called me, and Jimmy was on the phone. So I went in and he said, ‘Are you sitting down?’ I said ‘No.’ He said, ‘Well, you better get a chair.’ Then, he told me he was going to run for Governor. Well, it was all very sudden. We only had, I think, maybe seven or eight weeks to campaign. But you couldn’t just let him have it, no, it was big segregationists. So the first time I had campaigned, he was in the Senate but I had done telephone calls and things. But I’d never done any campaigning.
“Everywhere I went people asked me what my husband would do with someone with mental illness. I kept getting the question, and it was a time when the community mental health centers acted in the past. People were being moved out of the huge institutions, but the community mental health centers had not been established yet. So they were going from the institutions just into the communities with no services. I did meet that woman. But it was after I had just heard it day in and day out, and I became really distressed about it.” [1]
She also outlined how she had helped pass the Mental Health Services Act of 1980 and now explained how it was helping advance a new model of providing mental health care.
On that day, with the bright sun beaming in her face and the gentle breeze fluttering her papers, Rosalynn realized well how quickly their time in the White House was passing them by. They would have opportunities after Jimmy left the White House. They could start an international organization; they could write books; they could build his library, but they would never have the influence they had now. Her mouth read her speech, but her mind considered all that there was left to do. Not just treating patients, but preventing mental health issues in the first place, and reducing the stigma around mental health so that everyone who needed treatment was willing to receive it. One day, she believed, mental health issues would be treated just as physical issues were treated.
After the speeches, Rosalynn cut the ceremonial ribbon with an oversized pair of scissors, and then she and the Governor and the other dignitaries went inside for a tour.
When the tour was over and Rosalynn was back in the car, she phoned Pat Caddell. “Pat,” she told him, “we just had a great event in Chilton County, Alabama.” Her aides couldn’t hear Pat’s response, but they assumed he had repeated back the percentage Jimmy had received there during the ’80 election because Mrs. Carter replied, “That’s right. Yes. Nearly lost it. I want you to work on something — a strategy memo — about how we can be using the on-the-ground impact we’re making as part of our political message.” There was a pause. “Yes,” she told him, “before the midterms. We need to make sure our incumbents have wins — these tangible wins — that they can use to show this government is helping people.” Caddell spoke for a few minutes, and then, finally, “Yes, exactly. Thank you, Pat. Get that to me as soon as you can.”
Those who did not consider the political acumen of the First Lady were doomed to underestimating the Carter administration.
The motorcade snaked its way through the unpaved streets of Clanton before finding the highway and racing towards the airport. As she bounded up the steps into her plane, aides scrambled to get her the evening editions of the paper, placing them neatly on her desk for the return flight home.
No sooner had she entered the plane, Rosalynn asked for an update on the day’s events in Washington. A staffer ticked through everything, including an important press conference on Capitol Hill. Top Senate Democrats had announced major movement towards healthcare reform. Rosalynn wanted all of the details and as the plane raced down the runway and lifted its nose into the sky, she reviewed the report in the paper. Then, methodically, one by one, she phoned the members of the president’s mental health commission on her return flight home. Yes, she wanted to let them know about the day’s event, but more importantly she wanted them to think. Jimmy was moving healthcare legislation through the Congress. What did they need to make sure was included for mental health? Whatever it was, she wanted to know. She would ensure it got in the final bill.
On each call, Rosalynn took careful notes, quickly filling a fresh legal pad with pages of ideas — ways to strengthen the Mental Health Systems Act, but also ideas for how to better handle general healthcare coverage in order to ensure access was widespread for all people. Their report had identified underserved communities — people of color, rural Americans, children. Rosalynn wanted to make sure that whatever changes came to the overall national system did not complicate the administration’s efforts on mental health.
That night, she entered the White House Residence to find a tired president already in bed, listening to a poem recited by Dylan Thomas. [2] As Rosalynn walked in, he smiled and welcomed her home. Rosalynn was thrilled to see him, but as soon as she washed her face, changed into her pajamas, and joined Jimmy in bed, she turned to face him. “Let’s talk about this healthcare bill,” she began.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
[1] Taken from Rosalynn Carter’s remarks here: https://www.jfklibrary.org/events-a...s/rosalynn-carter-on-the-mental-health-crisis
[2] A favorite ritual: https://www.nytimes.com/1976/07/23/...eekly-publishing-what-jimmy-carter-reads.html
Deleted member 145219
Let’s Go Jimmy and Rosalynn!!Earlier this year, the Carter Center announced that its co-founder, Rosalynn Smith Carter, had been diagnosed with dementia. A few months later, they announced she was receiving hospice care. The entire time, her husband, Jimmy, had been receiving at-home hospice care himself. These two American giants have spent the year nearing their end, but they have also been witness to an extraordinary outpouring of love and a reconsideration of their legacies.
Rosalynn is one of our most unique first ladies. She was a trusted but quiet presence. She was the first First Lady to stand in for her husband for an official act, traveling to represent him and the nation internationally. She was the honorary co-chair of his important mental health commission, which has been an important part of his presidential record, especially in this modern reconsideration of the Carter White House. It remains a hot button political issue today, and although the legislation he passed was imperfect, it marks the last time the federal government really tried to pass a comprehensive federal investment in the mental health care infrastructure. That bill was a product of the work Rosalynn's mental health commission did.
Her work in this space has been widely praised in the days after her death, and we are all wise to consider it. But Rosalynn was also a trusted political advisor to her husband, and while future presidential staffs often dreaded the First Lady meddling in political affairs, the Carter team welcomed it because they knew that Rosalynn offered a gentle yet wise counsel. We were lucky to have her service as First Lady for four years. We have also been lucky to have her decades of work after leaving the White House -- her advocacy, her writing, her action.
On Sunday, November 19th, Rosalynn Carter passed away at the age of 96. She had never known life without Jimmy Carter. When she was just days old, the nurse who delivered her, Jimmy's mother, brought the future president to meet her at crib side. Theirs has been a storybook romance, yes, but it has also been one of the most consequential partnerships our country has ever known. I knew I wanted to honor her in this thread, and so a short chapter dedicated to her influence on the Carter White House and this alternate America seemed the perfect fit. I hope you will enjoy it and reflect on the legacy of this incredible woman.
It was not originally planned and so I am consider it "Chapter 14 1/2," but it is very much "canon" as far as our story is concerned.
My thoughts are with President Carter, the entire Carter family, and the good people of Plains, Georgia, who have lost one of their own.
ROSALYNN
“When I announced my focus on mental health as first lady of Georgia in 1971, none but five mental health advocates in the state wanted to be involved with the issue.”
-Rosalynn Carter
September 1, 1981
Community health center opening — Clanton, Alabama
Fob James was wearing a brown suit, and although it was one of his nicer ones, it still hung off him a bit too loosely, giving him a sort of frumpy look. He was wearing a nice suit because it was a particularly important day. Fob James was a few minutes away from welcoming First Lady Rosalynn Carter to his state for a very special announcement.
In 1980, Congress had passed the Mental Health Systems Act, a response to the President's Commission on Mental Health, of which Rosalynn Carter served as the honorary chair. The legislation had several priorities, most notably money to allow states to transition away from large institutions in favor of community mental health centers. As Governor, Fob James had already been focused on work around mental health, and so he was eager to take the federal dollars and put them to use in his state.
Now, he was bringing the First Lady of the United States to Clanton, Alabama, a small city and the county seat of Chilton County, which President Carter had won in 1976 but had only narrowly hung onto in his 1980 reelection campaign. Fob James wanted the people here to see how the government could actually be of service to them — like it was supposed to be.
James stood outside the facility which had been converted into a new community health center, his arms hanging, his hands folded, watching as the First Lady’s motorcade rolled up to the front door. He was joined by some county and local officials as well as the center’s small staff of four people. The motorcade came to a stop and a Secret Service agent (yes, in this small city!) stepped out to open the door for Rosalynn Carter.
And out she stepped, the breeze gently fluttering the wisps of her otherwise perfectly groomed hair. Her golden curls bouncing magnificently in the Alabama sunlight. She was a steel magnolia, and she was not lost or uncomfortable in a small, rural Southern town. It was not all that different from the one in which she’d been raised. She smiled and stretched out a hand to the governor, who quickly welcomed her and introduced her to some of the others around them. Then, they headed in for a tour of the facility.
It wasn’t much, but Rosalynn had long advocated that these centers didn’t have to fit people’s stereotypes about them. In Georgia, under her husband’s governorships, they’d set up some that were no more than a room with a phone and a person staffing it who could talk through an issue someone was having whenever they called. She met the medical staff and some volunteers who were helping out in the facility, and then, they headed outside for a ribbon cutting and a press conference. Clanton had never had a press conference that elicited national media attention, but that was the difference the First Lady could make. She traveled with her own crop of reporters to document her movements, and that meant she could spotlight issues and communities that were usually out of reach or, more often than not, not of interest to larger outlets.
The press conference began with the Mayor of Clanton, who introduced the director of the facility, other staffers, and then turned it over to Governor James, who quickly heaped praise on the First Lady for coming and thanked the Congressional delegation in Alabama that had helped secure the funds.
When it was Rosalynn’s turn, the First Lady stepped up to the microphone. She thanked the dignitaries in attendance, and then she explained the origins of her concern for mental health: “I did become involved in campaigning for Jimmy the first time he ran for Governor. He ran once and lost. He was actually in the State Senate running for Congress, and our leading Democratic candidate had a heart attack and left Lester Maddox— are you familiar with Lester Maddox, our only Democratic candidate? Jimmy went to Atlanta because nobody had announced to run against Lester Maddox. We had a Republican candidate, first time in 100 years, running for Governor. So Jimmy went to Atlanta to see who was going to run and nobody was. Lester Maddox was very popular, you remember, this was in the late 1960s.
“I was going home from our peanut warehouse. I was keeping our business while Jimmy was gone. His mother lived about halfway between the office and my house, and she called me, and Jimmy was on the phone. So I went in and he said, ‘Are you sitting down?’ I said ‘No.’ He said, ‘Well, you better get a chair.’ Then, he told me he was going to run for Governor. Well, it was all very sudden. We only had, I think, maybe seven or eight weeks to campaign. But you couldn’t just let him have it, no, it was big segregationists. So the first time I had campaigned, he was in the Senate but I had done telephone calls and things. But I’d never done any campaigning.
“Everywhere I went people asked me what my husband would do with someone with mental illness. I kept getting the question, and it was a time when the community mental health centers acted in the past. People were being moved out of the huge institutions, but the community mental health centers had not been established yet. So they were going from the institutions just into the communities with no services. I did meet that woman. But it was after I had just heard it day in and day out, and I became really distressed about it.” [1]
She also outlined how she had helped pass the Mental Health Services Act of 1980 and now explained how it was helping advance a new model of providing mental health care.
On that day, with the bright sun beaming in her face and the gentle breeze fluttering her papers, Rosalynn realized well how quickly their time in the White House was passing them by. They would have opportunities after Jimmy left the White House. They could start an international organization; they could write books; they could build his library, but they would never have the influence they had now. Her mouth read her speech, but her mind considered all that there was left to do. Not just treating patients, but preventing mental health issues in the first place, and reducing the stigma around mental health so that everyone who needed treatment was willing to receive it. One day, she believed, mental health issues would be treated just as physical issues were treated.
After the speeches, Rosalynn cut the ceremonial ribbon with an oversized pair of scissors, and then she and the Governor and the other dignitaries went inside for a tour.
When the tour was over and Rosalynn was back in the car, she phoned Pat Caddell. “Pat,” she told him, “we just had a great event in Chilton County, Alabama.” Her aides couldn’t hear Pat’s response, but they assumed he had repeated back the percentage Jimmy had received there during the ’80 election because Mrs. Carter replied, “That’s right. Yes. Nearly lost it. I want you to work on something — a strategy memo — about how we can be using the on-the-ground impact we’re making as part of our political message.” There was a pause. “Yes,” she told him, “before the midterms. We need to make sure our incumbents have wins — these tangible wins — that they can use to show this government is helping people.” Caddell spoke for a few minutes, and then, finally, “Yes, exactly. Thank you, Pat. Get that to me as soon as you can.”
Those who did not consider the political acumen of the First Lady were doomed to underestimating the Carter administration.
The motorcade snaked its way through the unpaved streets of Clanton before finding the highway and racing towards the airport. As she bounded up the steps into her plane, aides scrambled to get her the evening editions of the paper, placing them neatly on her desk for the return flight home.
No sooner had she entered the plane, Rosalynn asked for an update on the day’s events in Washington. A staffer ticked through everything, including an important press conference on Capitol Hill. Top Senate Democrats had announced major movement towards healthcare reform. Rosalynn wanted all of the details and as the plane raced down the runway and lifted its nose into the sky, she reviewed the report in the paper. Then, methodically, one by one, she phoned the members of the president’s mental health commission on her return flight home. Yes, she wanted to let them know about the day’s event, but more importantly she wanted them to think. Jimmy was moving healthcare legislation through the Congress. What did they need to make sure was included for mental health? Whatever it was, she wanted to know. She would ensure it got in the final bill.
On each call, Rosalynn took careful notes, quickly filling a fresh legal pad with pages of ideas — ways to strengthen the Mental Health Systems Act, but also ideas for how to better handle general healthcare coverage in order to ensure access was widespread for all people. Their report had identified underserved communities — people of color, rural Americans, children. Rosalynn wanted to make sure that whatever changes came to the overall national system did not complicate the administration’s efforts on mental health.
That night, she entered the White House Residence to find a tired president already in bed, listening to a poem recited by Dylan Thomas. [2] As Rosalynn walked in, he smiled and welcomed her home. Rosalynn was thrilled to see him, but as soon as she washed her face, changed into her pajamas, and joined Jimmy in bed, she turned to face him. “Let’s talk about this healthcare bill,” she began.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
[1] Taken from Rosalynn Carter’s remarks here: https://www.jfklibrary.org/events-a...s/rosalynn-carter-on-the-mental-health-crisis
[2] A favorite ritual: https://www.nytimes.com/1976/07/23/...eekly-publishing-what-jimmy-carter-reads.html
A perfect tribute to Rosalynn. Great work, Vidal!Earlier this year, the Carter Center announced that its co-founder, Rosalynn Smith Carter, had been diagnosed with dementia. A few months later, they announced she was receiving hospice care. The entire time, her husband, Jimmy, had been receiving at-home hospice care himself. These two American giants have spent the year nearing their end, but they have also been witness to an extraordinary outpouring of love and a reconsideration of their legacies.
Rosalynn is one of our most unique first ladies. She was a trusted but quiet presence. She was the first First Lady to stand in for her husband for an official act, traveling to represent him and the nation internationally. She was the honorary co-chair of his important mental health commission, which has been an important part of his presidential record, especially in this modern reconsideration of the Carter White House. It remains a hot button political issue today, and although the legislation he passed was imperfect, it marks the last time the federal government really tried to pass a comprehensive federal investment in the mental health care infrastructure. That bill was a product of the work Rosalynn's mental health commission did.
Her work in this space has been widely praised in the days after her death, and we are all wise to consider it. But Rosalynn was also a trusted political advisor to her husband, and while future presidential staffs often dreaded the First Lady meddling in political affairs, the Carter team welcomed it because they knew that Rosalynn offered a gentle yet wise counsel. We were lucky to have her service as First Lady for four years. We have also been lucky to have her decades of work after leaving the White House -- her advocacy, her writing, her action.
On Sunday, November 19th, Rosalynn Carter passed away at the age of 96. She had never known life without Jimmy Carter. When she was just days old, the nurse who delivered her, Jimmy's mother, brought the future president to meet her at crib side. Theirs has been a storybook romance, yes, but it has also been one of the most consequential partnerships our country has ever known. I knew I wanted to honor her in this thread, and so a short chapter dedicated to her influence on the Carter White House and this alternate America seemed the perfect fit. I hope you will enjoy it and reflect on the legacy of this incredible woman.
It was not originally planned and so I am consider it "Chapter 14 1/2," but it is very much "canon" as far as our story is concerned.
My thoughts are with President Carter, the entire Carter family, and the good people of Plains, Georgia, who have lost one of their own.
ROSALYNN
“When I announced my focus on mental health as first lady of Georgia in 1971, none but five mental health advocates in the state wanted to be involved with the issue.”
-Rosalynn Carter
September 1, 1981
Community health center opening — Clanton, Alabama
Fob James was wearing a brown suit, and although it was one of his nicer ones, it still hung off him a bit too loosely, giving him a sort of frumpy look. He was wearing a nice suit because it was a particularly important day. Fob James was a few minutes away from welcoming First Lady Rosalynn Carter to his state for a very special announcement.
In 1980, Congress had passed the Mental Health Systems Act, a response to the President's Commission on Mental Health, of which Rosalynn Carter served as the honorary chair. The legislation had several priorities, most notably money to allow states to transition away from large institutions in favor of community mental health centers. As Governor, Fob James had already been focused on work around mental health, and so he was eager to take the federal dollars and put them to use in his state.
Now, he was bringing the First Lady of the United States to Clanton, Alabama, a small city and the county seat of Chilton County, which President Carter had won in 1976 but had only narrowly hung onto in his 1980 reelection campaign. Fob James wanted the people here to see how the government could actually be of service to them — like it was supposed to be.
James stood outside the facility which had been converted into a new community health center, his arms hanging, his hands folded, watching as the First Lady’s motorcade rolled up to the front door. He was joined by some county and local officials as well as the center’s small staff of four people. The motorcade came to a stop and a Secret Service agent (yes, in this small city!) stepped out to open the door for Rosalynn Carter.
And out she stepped, the breeze gently fluttering the wisps of her otherwise perfectly groomed hair. Her golden curls bouncing magnificently in the Alabama sunlight. She was a steel magnolia, and she was not lost or uncomfortable in a small, rural Southern town. It was not all that different from the one in which she’d been raised. She smiled and stretched out a hand to the governor, who quickly welcomed her and introduced her to some of the others around them. Then, they headed in for a tour of the facility.
It wasn’t much, but Rosalynn had long advocated that these centers didn’t have to fit people’s stereotypes about them. In Georgia, under her husband’s governorships, they’d set up some that were no more than a room with a phone and a person staffing it who could talk through an issue someone was having whenever they called. She met the medical staff and some volunteers who were helping out in the facility, and then, they headed outside for a ribbon cutting and a press conference. Clanton had never had a press conference that elicited national media attention, but that was the difference the First Lady could make. She traveled with her own crop of reporters to document her movements, and that meant she could spotlight issues and communities that were usually out of reach or, more often than not, not of interest to larger outlets.
The press conference began with the Mayor of Clanton, who introduced the director of the facility, other staffers, and then turned it over to Governor James, who quickly heaped praise on the First Lady for coming and thanked the Congressional delegation in Alabama that had helped secure the funds.
When it was Rosalynn’s turn, the First Lady stepped up to the microphone. She thanked the dignitaries in attendance, and then she explained the origins of her concern for mental health: “I did become involved in campaigning for Jimmy the first time he ran for Governor. He ran once and lost. He was actually in the State Senate running for Congress, and our leading Democratic candidate had a heart attack and left Lester Maddox— are you familiar with Lester Maddox, our only Democratic candidate? Jimmy went to Atlanta because nobody had announced to run against Lester Maddox. We had a Republican candidate, first time in 100 years, running for Governor. So Jimmy went to Atlanta to see who was going to run and nobody was. Lester Maddox was very popular, you remember, this was in the late 1960s.
“I was going home from our peanut warehouse. I was keeping our business while Jimmy was gone. His mother lived about halfway between the office and my house, and she called me, and Jimmy was on the phone. So I went in and he said, ‘Are you sitting down?’ I said ‘No.’ He said, ‘Well, you better get a chair.’ Then, he told me he was going to run for Governor. Well, it was all very sudden. We only had, I think, maybe seven or eight weeks to campaign. But you couldn’t just let him have it, no, it was big segregationists. So the first time I had campaigned, he was in the Senate but I had done telephone calls and things. But I’d never done any campaigning.
“Everywhere I went people asked me what my husband would do with someone with mental illness. I kept getting the question, and it was a time when the community mental health centers acted in the past. People were being moved out of the huge institutions, but the community mental health centers had not been established yet. So they were going from the institutions just into the communities with no services. I did meet that woman. But it was after I had just heard it day in and day out, and I became really distressed about it.” [1]
She also outlined how she had helped pass the Mental Health Services Act of 1980 and now explained how it was helping advance a new model of providing mental health care.
On that day, with the bright sun beaming in her face and the gentle breeze fluttering her papers, Rosalynn realized well how quickly their time in the White House was passing them by. They would have opportunities after Jimmy left the White House. They could start an international organization; they could write books; they could build his library, but they would never have the influence they had now. Her mouth read her speech, but her mind considered all that there was left to do. Not just treating patients, but preventing mental health issues in the first place, and reducing the stigma around mental health so that everyone who needed treatment was willing to receive it. One day, she believed, mental health issues would be treated just as physical issues were treated.
After the speeches, Rosalynn cut the ceremonial ribbon with an oversized pair of scissors, and then she and the Governor and the other dignitaries went inside for a tour.
When the tour was over and Rosalynn was back in the car, she phoned Pat Caddell. “Pat,” she told him, “we just had a great event in Chilton County, Alabama.” Her aides couldn’t hear Pat’s response, but they assumed he had repeated back the percentage Jimmy had received there during the ’80 election because Mrs. Carter replied, “That’s right. Yes. Nearly lost it. I want you to work on something — a strategy memo — about how we can be using the on-the-ground impact we’re making as part of our political message.” There was a pause. “Yes,” she told him, “before the midterms. We need to make sure our incumbents have wins — these tangible wins — that they can use to show this government is helping people.” Caddell spoke for a few minutes, and then, finally, “Yes, exactly. Thank you, Pat. Get that to me as soon as you can.”
Those who did not consider the political acumen of the First Lady were doomed to underestimating the Carter administration.
The motorcade snaked its way through the unpaved streets of Clanton before finding the highway and racing towards the airport. As she bounded up the steps into her plane, aides scrambled to get her the evening editions of the paper, placing them neatly on her desk for the return flight home.
No sooner had she entered the plane, Rosalynn asked for an update on the day’s events in Washington. A staffer ticked through everything, including an important press conference on Capitol Hill. Top Senate Democrats had announced major movement towards healthcare reform. Rosalynn wanted all of the details and as the plane raced down the runway and lifted its nose into the sky, she reviewed the report in the paper. Then, methodically, one by one, she phoned the members of the president’s mental health commission on her return flight home. Yes, she wanted to let them know about the day’s event, but more importantly she wanted them to think. Jimmy was moving healthcare legislation through the Congress. What did they need to make sure was included for mental health? Whatever it was, she wanted to know. She would ensure it got in the final bill.
On each call, Rosalynn took careful notes, quickly filling a fresh legal pad with pages of ideas — ways to strengthen the Mental Health Systems Act, but also ideas for how to better handle general healthcare coverage in order to ensure access was widespread for all people. Their report had identified underserved communities — people of color, rural Americans, children. Rosalynn wanted to make sure that whatever changes came to the overall national system did not complicate the administration’s efforts on mental health.
That night, she entered the White House Residence to find a tired president already in bed, listening to a poem recited by Dylan Thomas. [2] As Rosalynn walked in, he smiled and welcomed her home. Rosalynn was thrilled to see him, but as soon as she washed her face, changed into her pajamas, and joined Jimmy in bed, she turned to face him. “Let’s talk about this healthcare bill,” she began.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
[1] Taken from Rosalynn Carter’s remarks here: https://www.jfklibrary.org/events-a...s/rosalynn-carter-on-the-mental-health-crisis
[2] A favorite ritual: https://www.nytimes.com/1976/07/23/...eekly-publishing-what-jimmy-carter-reads.html
Again, a fantastic chapter. Rosalyn's personality was captured perfectly as was her interest in mental health
Deleted member 145219
Yeah. And it seems that during the 1980's was when the United States really dropped the ball on the issue.
Not that it was five stars beforehand.
Very courageous of her to attempt to tackle such a taboo when most politicians ignored it! Especially from a First Lady