Rosalynn Carter turned 94 years old Wednesday to little fanfare, but that doesn’t mean people were not celebrating.
On Friday, in her hometown of Plains, Georgia, the former First Lady will get a street named after her as the town changes South Bond Street to the Rosalynn Carter Trail.
The home that Carter grew up on is on South Bond Street. At the renaming, family members also plan to dedicate the new Rosalynn Smith Carter Childhood Garden on the property.
Curtis Compton/AJC
Curtis Compton/AJC
The change acknowledges the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail, a network of monarch butterfly-friendly public and private gardens across the United States.
Carter has long been an advocate for monarch butterfly conservation, and she also has a rose, an orchid, a camellia, and an azalea named for her.
“We are excited to be adding a new garden next to Mrs. Carter’s childhood home on Rosalynn Carter Trail,” said Annette Wise, president and co-founder of the butterfly trail. “This new garden will be a 1930s-inspired garden honoring Rosalynn Smith Carter and her love for butterflies.”
The Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail began in 2013 with the first butterfly garden established at Carter’s home in Plains. Wise said pollinator gardens were then added around Plains in public areas like Main Street, the Georgia Visitors Center, the Plains High School Museum and the Jimmy Carter Boyhood Farm.
Wise said there are currently 22 small public in-ground and container gardens around Plains providing nectar and host plants for butterflies.
More than 1,400 private and public gardens across the world have joined the trail.
HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Carter, the wife of former President Jimmy Carter, is perhaps best known for her advocacy for mental health issues and caregiver issues. She is also the co-founder of The Carter Center and founder of the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism.
In honor of Carter’s 94 birthday, here are 14 more things you probably didn’t know about her from a list compiled by the Carter Center.
1. Rosalynn Smith Carter’s first name is Eleanor.
2. Carter’s Secret Service code name is Dancer.
3. She was the first first lady to establish an office in the East Wing of the White House and have a projects staff.
4. The press dubbed her the “steel magnolia” for her “sweetness and drive.”
5. Carter loved the gown she wore for the Georgia governor’s inaugural ball so much that she wore it again at presidential inaugural ball — and was criticized for wearing it twice.
6. Carter is a seamstress and used to make her daughter Amy’s clothes. She stopped sewing once she moved into the Governor’s Mansion because there was no time.
7. Fly fishing in a remote stream anywhere in the world is Carter’s favorite thing to do.
8. Carter was valedictorian of her Plains High School graduating class.
9. She learned how to hula in Hawaii during President Carter’s time in the U.S. Navy.
10. Lillian Gordy Carter, President Jimmy Carter’s mother, who was a nurse, helped to deliver Rosalynn Carter in the house next door to the Carter home.
11. Rosalynn Carter’s first book, First Lady from Plains, topped The New York Times non-fiction bestseller list.
12. As honorary chair of the Last Acts Campaign to improve end-of-life care, Carter was an early advocate for the hospice movement and palliative care.
13. She was a key advocate for the passage of legislation during the Carter administration requiring vaccinations for school children.
14. Carter is opposed to the death penalty.
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