Rosalyn Carter is honored by family, friends, first ladies and presidents, including husband Jimmy | National

ATLANTA (AP) — Rosalyn Carter was remembered Tuesday as a former U.S. first lady who used her fierce intellect and political power to live out her deep Christian faith, always helping others, especially those who needed it most.

A bevy of first ladies and presidents – including her 99-year-old husband Jimmy Carter – joined other political figures in paying their respects. But a panel of speakers said her global status doesn’t define her.

“She met kings and queens, presidents, other dignitaries, powerful corporate leaders and celebrities,” said her son, James Earl “Chip” Carter III. “She said that the people she felt most comfortable with and the people she liked to be around the most were people who lived in absolute poverty, without proper housing, without proper food and without access to health care “.

The service took place during three days of events dedicated to the Day of Humanitarian War died on November 19 at home in Plains, Ga., age 96 Monday began in the Carters’ home county of Sumter and continued at Glenn Memorial Church in Atlanta. Her funeral and burial are scheduled for Wednesday in her small homeland.

Jimmy Carter, who turned 10 months old home hospice and has not appeared in public since September, watching from his wheelchair, lying down and covered by a blanket with his wife’s face on it. Chip and his sister Amy held their father’s hands, with brothers Jeff and Jack standing next to them.

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, Carters old friends, joined them in the front row with former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other living former first ladies, Melania Trump, Michelle Obama and Laura Bush. Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff paid their respects, as did Georgia’s U.S. senators and Governor Brian Kemp and his wife, Marti. More than 1,000 people, including a sizable contingent of Secret Service agents, packed the sanctuary. Former presidents Donald Trump, Barack Obama and George W. Bush were invited but did not attend.

“My mother was the glue that held our family together through the ups and downs, all the hardships and hardships of our family’s politics,” Chip Carter said.

The pews are filled with political power players, but front and center were her children and dozens of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, all surrounding Jimmy Carter, her partner is 77 years old.

“Their partnership and love story was a defining feature of her life,” said Amy Carter, who read a love letter her father wrote to her mother 75 years ago.

Journalist Judy Woodruff recalled how Rosalyn Carter lobbied lawmakers, campaigned separately from her husband, attended cabinet meetings and played key roles — including being the first presidential adviser to suggest Camp David as a negotiating venue for Epypt’s Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin from Israel. These negotiations led to historic peace agreements between the two countries.

“I don’t believe there would be President Carter without Rosalyn Carter,” Woodruff said.

It was Jimmy Carter’s first public appearance since entering hospice, apart from a brief trip with Rosaleen in September. Plains Peanut Festival parade, where they were visible only through the open windows of the special services car. He was with his wife in her final hours, but did not appear publicly during earlier events at her alma mater, Georgia Southwestern State University in America, and at its presidential library.

“He never wants to be very far from her,” said Carter Center CEO Paige Alexander. The trip to Atlanta was “tough” on the former president, but “this is her last trip and it’s probably his,” she added. “He’s determined.”

The Carters married in 1946 and became a family married longer presidential couple in US history. Jimmy Carter is the longest-living president; Rosalyn Carter was the second longest-lived First Lady, second only to Bess Truman, who died at age 97.

Family members described how Rosalyn Carter went from growing up in a small town where she never spoke to a group larger than a Sunday school class to becoming a global figure who visited more than 120 countries.

Catherine Cade, who remained a close adviser as Rosalyn Carter helped build the Carter Center and its global reach, called Rosalyn Carter’s time as first lady “really just one chapter in her life that was about caring for others.” .

She was praised for her half a century of legal work improving mental health care in America and reducing the stigma associated with mental illness, she drew attention to the tens of millions of people who work for free in US families and was recognized for how integral she was to her husband’s political rise and his tenure in office Governor of Georgia and 39th President.

Chip Carter recalled how his mom sent him to a drug and alcohol rehab clinic.

“My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever met,” he said. “And she looks beautiful.”

Her grandson Jason Carter broke into laughter as he acknowledged the “wonderful sisterhood” of the first ladies in attendance, then greeted the “lovely husbands” of Hillary Clinton and Jill Biden.

“She was so down to earth, it was amazing,” Jason Carter said as he shared family stories, including the time his grandmother made pimento sandwiches and handed them out on a Delta flight.

“She loved people,” he said. “She was a cool grandma.”

Country music stars Garth Brooks and Tricia Yearwood, friends of the Carter family and successors as Habitat for Humanity ambassadors, performed John Lennon’s “Imagine” near the end of the service.

Rosalyn Carter’s funeral will be held Wednesday in Plains, with an invitation-only service at Maranatha Baptist Church, where the Carters are members after returning to Georgia following his presidency. She will be buried after a private graveside service in the plot the couple will share, visible from the front porch of the home they built before Jimmy Carter’s first political campaign in 1962.

DeMillo reported from Little Rock, Arkansas. Associated Press writers Sudhin Thanawala and Fatima Hussain contributed to this report.