Ex-first lady Rosalynn Carter has dementia, family says
ATLANTA — Former first lady Rosalynn Carter has dementia, her family announced Tuesday.
Carter, 95, remains at home with former President Jimmy Carter, 98, who has been at home receiving hospice care since early this year.
“She continues to live happily at home with her husband, enjoying spring in Plains and visits with loved ones,” the family said via The Carter
Center, the global humanitarian organization the couple founded in 1982, less than two years after Jimmy Carter’s landslide defeat.
Married nearly 77 years, the Carters are the longest-married first couple in United States history.
The family noted in its statement Rosalynn Carter has spent her long public life advocating for individuals and families affected by mental illness and for those in caregiving relationships with loved ones.
“Mrs. Carter often noted that there are only four kinds of people in this world: those who have been caregivers; those who are currently caregivers; those who will be caregivers; and those who will need caregivers,” the family statement reads. “We are experiencing the joy and the challenges of this journey.”
The Carters have been visiting only with family and close friends since the former president’s announcement in February he would forgo further medical intervention after a series of short hospital stays.
Eleanor Rosalynn Smith was born in Plains on Aug. 18, 1927. Jimmy Carter’s mother, a nurse, delivered her in the Smith family home. Lillian Carter brought her young son back a few days later to visit, allowing the future president and first lady to meet as preschooler and newborn.
They were married July 7, 1946.