The first lady was formidable, in more ways than one.
 | By Vanessa Mobley Op-Ed Editor |
Post-White House life seems the trickiest part of being a first lady. When I think of some of the most interesting first ladies — like Dolley Madison and Mary Todd Lincoln — it is their time out of the White House when their legacies grew complicated. |
The postpresidential life of Rosalynn Carter, which spanned five decades, couldn't be more different. Unlike Mrs. Madison and Mrs. Lincoln, both of whom struggled with money, Mrs. Carter was known to live well within her means and to enjoy the simpler things in life. (In 2018, The Washington Post described a typical Saturday night in Plains, Ga., for the Carters: "Dinner at their friend Jill Stuckey's house, with plastic Solo cups of ice water and one glass each of bargain-brand chardonnay, then the half-mile walk home to the ranch house they built in 1961.") |
The humble, Southern wife of a humble, Southern man is the kind of person we think we know. But as the biographer and journalist Jonathan Alter reveals in his guest essay, Mrs. Carter was so much more than the president's helpmeet: "In 1977 she assumed an unprecedented role as her husband's personal envoy and forcefully confronted authoritarian heads of state in Latin America on their human rights abuses." |
Mrs. Carter achieved a lot in four years in the White House and kept pace with Jimmy Carter in a long and fruitful life of service that followed it. In another guest essay, the journalist Azadeh Moaveni (who memorably wrote for Times Opinion on last year's protests in Iran over the nation's hijab laws) offers a new understanding of Mrs. Carter's time in office, showing how she built and professionalized the office of first lady. |
Alter and Moaveni's essays, both out this week, ask powerful questions about Rosalynn Carter's life, as well as her contributions to the White House and the world. |
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