Martha Washington
Abigail Adams
Martha Jefferson
Dolley Madison
Elizabeth Monroe
Louisa Adams
Rachel Jackson
Hannah Van Buren
Anna Harrison
Letitia Tyler
Julia Tyler
Sarah Polk
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Eliza Johnson
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Ellen Arthur
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Edith Wilson
Florence Harding
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Lou Hoover
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Lady Bird Johnson
Pat Nixon
Betty Ford
Rosalynn Carter
Nancy Reagan
Barbara Bush
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Laura Bush
Michelle Obama
Melania Trump
Rosalynn Smith Carter
Eleanor Rosalynn Smith was born in Plains, Georgia on August 18, 1927.
Her father died of cancer when she was 13. Rosalynn had to help her mother in the dressmaking business to pay the bills.
She was valedictorian of her high school class.
She attended Georgia Southwestern College in Americus, Georgia.
Rosalynn met Jimmy Carter in 1945. He was attending Annapolis. They wrote to each other every day. Jimmy served in the Navy for the next seven years.
Jimmy and Rosalynn were married on July 7, 1946 in Plains, Georgia.
In 1953, Jimmy and Rosalynn returned to Plains to run the family peanut business. They turned it from a failing business to a profitable one.
Their only daughter, Amy Lynn, was born in 1967.
When Jimmy ran for President in 1976, Rosalynn was very active in the campaign. The press nicknamed her the "steel magnolia" for her sweetness and drive.
After Jimmy's inauguration, he and Rosalynn walked hand-in-hand down Pennsylvania Ave.
Rosalynn was criticized for wearing the same dress to the Presidential Inauguration as he wore to the Governor.
She worked on many charitable causes including Habitat for Humanity.
Rosalynn still works on and supports mental health programs.
The Carters still teach Sunday School.
Sources of Information:
Books:
Barden, Cindy,Meet the First Ladies, Lorenz Corp.
Gormley, Beatrice,First Ladies: Women Who Called The White House Home (First Ladies) , Scholastic Paperbacks, 1997
Smith, Carter, Editor,Smithsonian Presidents and First Ladies DK Publishing, New York, 2002
Web Sites:
The White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/
Portraits of the Presidents and First Ladies: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/odmdhtml/