Former first lady Rosalynn Carter’s grandson fondly remembered her as a public servant, fierce advocate for multiple causes and a woman who was “like everyone else’s grandma” during her memorial service in Georgia on Tuesday.
Jason Carter delivered one of many tributes to his late grandmother, eliciting laughter regularly during some of the lighter moments in the day’s proceedings, including when he acknowledged each of the living first ladies in the audience.
“Secretary Clinton, Mrs. Bush. Mrs. Obama, Mrs. Trump and Dr. Biden, thank you all for coming and acknowledging this remarkable sisterhood that you share with my grandmother. And thank you all for your leadership that you provided for our country and the world,” Carter said.
“Secretary Clinton and Dr. Biden, we also welcome your lovely husbands,” he added, prompting laughter in the room as President Biden and former President Clinton looked on.
Jason Carter recounted the Rosalynn Carter’s “most viral moment,” when she attended an Atlanta Braves game with former President Jimmy Carter and the two appeared on the kiss cam.
He recounted how Rosalynn Carter made sure each of her grandchildren received birthday cards with a $20 bill inside each year, quipping that it was the same gift even when he turned 45.
“She was like everyone else’s grandmother in a lot of ways. Almost all of her recipes call for mayonnaise for example,” he said to laughter in the room.
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Jason Carter also recounted his grandmother’s determination, citing a trip to the base camp of Mount Everest in Nepal and her belief that she could have done the climb. He also pointed to her years of advocacy to eradicate diseases around the world and her push to increase mental health treatment.
“If you imagine just how far our society has come in the last five years on issues of mental health, and you think that she decided in 1970 to tackle the ancient stigma associated with mental illness, it is remarkable how far she could see and how far she was willing to walk,” he said.
The former first lady died earlier this month at her rural Georgia home of Plains. She was 96 and had lived with dementia and was in declining health for several years.