Jimmy Carter Honors Late Wife Rosalynn With Blanket at Her Memorial Service

Jimmy Carter is keeping his late wife, Rosalynn Carter, close.

On Tuesday, the 99-year-old former president of the United States attended the public memorial service for his wife, who died on Nov. 19, and the former first lady at the Glenn Memorial Church at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

In what was his first public appearance since September, the former president — who has been in at-home hospice care since February — was wheeled into the ceremony. As President Carter made his way into the church, he was covered in a blanket with a picture of his and his wife’s faces. 

The stitching on the blanket was not just a tribute to their long love story, but their home of Plains, Georgia, as it had pictures of the plains and dogwood flowers native to the Peach State. In another tribute to their home, the text read, “est. 1885.”

President Carter sat in the front of the church as he took in the ceremony that had performances from Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood. He also looked on as some of his and Rosalynn’s children and grandchildren took to the podium to speak.

The Carter family was on hand to support the family patriarch, as the former president was seen being consoled by his daughter, Amy, and son, Chip, who held his hand throughout the ceremony. He did not speak. 

Also in attendance for the ceremony were all of the surviving first ladies, Michelle Obama, Melania Trump, Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush. Current first lady of the United States Dr. Jill Biden was joined in the front row by her husband, President Joe Biden. Vice President Kamala Harris and first gentleman Doug Emhoff were on hand as well as Georgia’s U.S. senators and Gov. Brian Kemp and his wife. 

Not in attendance were former U.S. presidents George W. Bush, Barak Obama and Donald Trump. 

The ceremonies in honor of Mrs. Carter began on Monday with a wreath-laying at the Georgia Southwestern State University’s Rosalynn Carter Health and Human Sciences Complex, which was followed by a procession carrying the body of the former first lady past the Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus, Georgia. Rosalynn was then taken to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta where members of the public paid their respects. 

On Wednesday, a private funeral service for family and friends will be held at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. 

Rosalynn died at the age of 96 on Nov. 19. At the time of her death, she was remembered by her husband of 77 years in a statement. 

“Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” President Carter said in a statement. “She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.”

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