Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, shared 4 kids and a total of 25 grandchildren
- Former first lady Rosalynn Carter died on November 19 at the age of 96.
- Former President Jimmy Carter, 99, is receiving hospice care at home in Georgia.
- Together, they had four children and 25 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter were married for 77 years before the former first lady's death on November 19 at the age of 96.
Together, they shared four children, 11 grandchildren (one grandson died in 2018), and 14 great-grandchildren. Members of the Carter family spoke at Rosalynn's funeral on Tuesday.
Meet the Carter family.
Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn Smith Carter, were married for 77 years.
Jimmy and Rosalynn's families were friends and neighbors growing up in Plains, Georgia. The two began dating in 1945, while Rosalynn was a student at Georgia Southwestern College and while Jimmy was enrolled at the US Naval Academy.
After their first date, Jimmy told his mother, "She's the girl I want to marry," according to the White House.
They wed on July 7, 1946.
As first lady, Rosalynn championed mental-health research, and she continued her advocacy after leaving the White House until her death at age 96.
Rosalynn served as the honorary chair of the President's Commission on Mental Health from 1977 to 1978, which helped pass the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980.
After her time in the White House, she remained active in humanitarian work with the establishment of the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers and longtime partnership with Habitat for Humanity. She also wrote five books.
In May, the Carter Center shared that Rosalynn had dementia. She celebrated her 96th birthday in August, and she died a few months later on November 19.
Her funeral in Atlanta, Georgia, on November 28 was attended by all living first ladies as well as President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, former president Bill Clinton, and members of Congress.
They had four children: Jack, Chip, Jeff, and Amy.
The Carters have 25 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, the Carter Center said in a statement following Rosalynn's death. In 2018, their grandson Jeremy died of a suspected heart attack.
Their oldest son, 76-year-old John William "Jack" Carter, followed his father into politics.
Jack and his first wife, Judy Langford, had two children. Their son Jason James, born in 1975, was a toddler when Carter took office in 1977. Their daughter, Sarah Rosemary, was born in 1978. They eventually divorced, and he married Elizabeth Brasfield in 1992, gaining two stepchildren.
In 2006, Jack ran for a Nevada seat in the US Senate, the first major office the Carter family has sought since 1980. He earned the Democratic nomination, but was unsuccessful against an incumbent Republican senator in the general election.
Jack holds a law degree from the University of Georgia, but he spent most of his career in the investment and finance industry, The New York Times reported.
James Earl "Chip" Carter, 73, worked for his family's peanut-farming business and has participated in the Democratic National Committee.
Chip worked as vice president, then president and CEO, at Friendship Force, a not-for-profit that organized international exchanges for adult home stays. He also served as a member of Plains City Council in Georgia.
He has been married three times and has a son, James Carter IV, and a daughter, Margaret Alicia Carter.
Donnel Jeffrey "Jeff" Carter, 71, launched a computer-electronics company.
Jeff and his wife, Annette, met at Georgia Southwestern University. They wed in 1975 during Carter's presidential campaign and spent the first years of their married life living in the White House.
"While living in the White House, Jeff and Annette helped host everybody from Bob Dylan to Pope John Paul II," their son Josh wrote in Annette's obituary in September 2021. "In some of Annette's favorite White House memories, she greeted the cast of Star Wars after the release of 'A New Hope' and John Travolta after he starred in 'Saturday Night Fever' and 'Grease.' These experiences were quite extraordinary for Jeff and Annette's first few years of marriage."
Jeff co-founded Computer Mapping Consultants, a firm that became a consultancy for the World Bank in 1978 and held foreign government contracts, The Bryan Times reported.
He and Annette had three children together. In 2018, their 28-year-old son Jeremy died from a suspected heart attack.
A former political activist, 56-year-old Amy Carter sits on the board of the Carter Center, the nonprofit founded by her father.
Amy was 9 years old when her father's presidency began. She had a pet Siamese cat named Misty who accompanied her to Camp David and took up residence in her doll house.
Amy became a political activist in the '80s and '90s, and she was even arrested at a CIA recruitment protest, the Los Angeles Times reported. She later received a master's degree from Tulane in art history and wed computer consultant James Wentzel in 1996. At her wedding ceremony she was not given away, saying she did not belong to anyone, People magazine reported. She had one child with Wentzel, a son named Hugo James Wentzel. They later divorced, and she married John Joseph "Jay" Kelly in 2007. They share another son, Errol Carter Kelly.
Amy worked with her dad on the 1995 children's book "The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer," which Jimmy wrote and she illustrated, about a boy who befriends a monster. She remains a board member of the Carter Center, but she has otherwise stayed out of public life.
The Carters have 25 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Among their grandchildren is Jack's son Jason James Carter (pictured), a former Georgia state senator who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2014.
His sister, Sarah Rosemary, earned a PhD in neuroscience from the University of California San Francisco in 2007 and works as the principal at Science Policy Consulting LLC, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Jack also has two stepchildren: Sarah Chuldenko, a painter, and John Chuldenko, a filmmaker.
Chip's son, James Carter IV, works as an opposition researcher. He made headlines during the 2012 presidential election, after he helped unearth the infamous "47%" video that ostracized nominee Mitt Romney, NPR reported. He later received a thank-you note from former President Barack Obama, CBS News reported.
Chip's daughter Margaret has remained out of the public eye.
Jeff's oldest son, Joshua Jeffery Carter, hosts a podcast called "Unchanging Principles," a reference to a line from Jimmy's inaugural address.
Jeff's youngest, James "Jamie" Carlton Carter, married his longtime girlfriend Anna in a backyard pandemic wedding in October 2021, then held a larger ceremony a year later at the Carter Center, according to their wedding website.
Amy's son, Hugo James Wentzel, and stepson, Errol Carter Kelly, have attended public events with their grandparents, but they have otherwise kept a low profile.
Correction: November 29, 2023 — An earlier version of this story misstated the number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren shared by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. They had 25 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, not 22.
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