STEEL MAGNOLIA RUSTS
No man has had a more eventful 2023 than Jimmy Carter. After announcing in February that he was likely to die this century rather than next century, he put his time left on this globe to good use: Ran marathons, stopped burglaries, threw Rolf Harris and the Unabomber off the Empire State Building. However, he made a major flub when attempting to take out Donald Trump this past week, using nothing but psychic powers from the confines of his humble Georgia home, and instead killed Trump’s sister. For by his side for pretty much his entire life was his wife Rosalynn, and it was weighing heavily on his mind that she was in her final few days.
“Pretty much his entire life” was no exaggeration – their families were longtime friends, and Jimmy’s mother was the nurse who delivered newborn Rosalynn. They dated in 1945 and married in 1946, and Rosalynn was reliably by Jimmy’s side as he rocketed to the Georgia governorship and eventually the White House. Harkening back to Eleanor Roosevelt as a politically outspoken first lady, she often shaped Carter policy behind-the-scenes, was a frequent envoy on foreign trips, and was a strident voice for destigmatising mental health and caring for the elderly.
After Jimmy Carter was trounced in 1980, adapting to post-presidential life proved difficult for the Carters (and indeed, Rosalynn not Jimmy yearned for a political comeback!). They cofounded the Carter Center, where amidst building houses and brokering peace deals, Rosalynn remained devoted to mental health advocacy. Her decades of effort bore fruit in 2008 when Congress passed and Dubya signed legislation requiring insurance to treat mental illness the same as physical illness.
Rosalynn Carter seemed a near certainty to make the Drop 40 next year, between her husband’s hospice and her own dementia diagnosis in May. Few could have called it in February, but she beat him to the punch aged 96, and ends up a hit for 16 teams. Among those to get Carter are political theme teams, Deathlist.net, JoeRam, Peter Falk’s Friends, and Puzlman’s Passing Picks. Might not be the last I pen about a Carter this year…
Rosalynn Carter
18 August 1927 – 19 November 2023, aged 96
16 TEAMS (💀💀💀💀💀 5 POINTS)