Rosalynn Carter born 1927

Born Plains, Georgia First Lady 1977–1981

A strong advocate of social welfare programs, Eleanor Rosalynn Smith Carter brought voters’ concerns about mental health care with her to the White House in 1977. In addition to serving as honorary chair of the President’s Commission on Mental Health, Carter attended cabinet meetings so that she could offer informed answers to the questions she received at public appearances. In 1982, Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter founded the Carter Center. Since 1984, the annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project with Habitat for Humanity has built and renovated houses in the United States and abroad. Today these homes stand as the physical embodiments of the Carters’ humanitarian principles.

Shortly before Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976, artist Robert Clark Templeton sketched Rosalynn Carter from two different angles, suggesting her multifaceted character and interests. Templeton’s 1980 portrait of President Jimmy Carter is also in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; donated by Mark, Kevin, and Tim Templeton, sons of the artist