Carters to celebrate
Former President Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalynn still reside in same town of their birth, ahead of their 75th wedding anniversary.
The young midshipman needed a date one evening while he was home from the U.S. Naval Academy, so his younger sister paired him with a family friend who already had a crush.
Nearly eight decades later, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are still together in the same town where they were born, grew up and had that first outing. In between, they’ve traveled the world as Naval officer and military spouse, American president and first lady, and finally as human rights and public health ambassadors.
“It’s a full partnership,” the 39th president told The Associated Press ahead of the couple’s 75th wedding anniversary on July 7.
It will be another milestone for the longestmarried presidential couple in American history. At 96, Carter also is the longest-lived of the 45 men who’ve served as chief executive. Carter has said often that the most important decision he ever made was falling for Eleanor Rosalynn Smith in 1945 and marrying her the following summer.
“My biggest secret is to marry the right person if you want to have a longlasting marriage,” Carter said.
The nonagenarians — she’s 93 — offered a few other tips for an enduring bond.
“Every day there needs to be reconciliation and communication between the two spouses,” the former president said, explaining that he and Rosalynn read the Bible together aloud each night. “We don’t go to sleep with some remaining differences between us,” he said.
Rosalynn Carter noted the importance of finding common interests. Even now, she said, “Jimmy and I are always looking for things to do together.”
Certainly, a 75-year marriage hasn’t been seamless, the couple acknowledges.
Jimmy was initially on course to be an admiral, and Rosalynn appreciated their life beyond Plains. But when James Earl Carter Sr. died in 1953, his son cut short his Navy career and decided the family would return to rural Georgia.
The former president has written that in retrospect he finds it inconceivable not to discuss such a life-changing decision with his wife, who was unhappy with the move. Now, they see the blossoming of their partnership in that challenging juncture.
“We developed a partnership when we were working in the farm supply business, and it continued when Jimmy got involved in politics,” Rosalynn Carter told AP.
Jimmy Carter also didn’t seek Rosalynn’s permission to make his first bid for office a few years later. However, she was on board.
She interjected: “I love it. I love campaigning. I had the best time. I was in all the states in the United States. I campaigned solid every day the last time we ran.”
Jimmy Carter has been an outspoken voice for women’s rights, including within Christianity. Carter left the Southern Baptist Convention in 2006, denouncing what he called “rigid” views that “subjugated” women in the church and in their own marriages.
The former president ratified those views again, as well as his support for the church recognizing same-sex marriage.
The Carters plan to celebrate their milestone with a party in Plains.
— Associated Press
Spears’ sister: Stop with death threats
Jamie Lynn Spears is asking people to stop sending her and her children death threats after she spoke out against her older sister Britney’s conservatorship.
The “Zoey 101” star, 30, said she supported ending Britney’s conservatorship, which is partially run by their father, James.
”I respect that everyone has the right to express themselves, but can we please stop with the death threats, especially the death threats to children,“Jamie Lynn wrote in an Instagram post. She has two daughters, 13-year-old Maddie and 3-year-old Ivey.
Jamie Lynn had rarely spoken publicly about her sister’s conservatorship before Britney delivered a passionate speech to a judge on June 23 demanding an end to the structure that limits her personal freedom.
”I’m not happy, I can’t sleep. I’m so angry it’s insane. And I’m depressed. I cry every day, “Britney said. ”It is my wish and my dream for all of this to end.“
Jamie Lynn then made it clear that she supports Britney.
”If ending the conservatorship, if flying to Mars or whatever the hell else (is what) she wants to do to be happy, I support that 100 percent, because I support my sister, “she said. ”I felt like until my sister was able to speak for herself and say what she felt she needed to say publicly, that it wasn’t my place, and it wasn’t the right thing to do.“
— Tribune News Service