December 2023 — MHCE Newsletter

10 | MHCE - News www.mhce.us DECEMBER 2023 EDITION
Rosalynn Carter is Eulogized Before Family and
Friends as Husband Jimmy Bears Silent Witness
PLAINS, Ga. — Her frail husband a silent witness, Rosalynn
Carter was celebrated by her family and closest friends Wednesday
in the same tiny town where she and Jimmy Carter were born,
forever their home base as they climbed to the White House and
traveled the world for humanitarian causes.
The former first lady, who died Nov. 19 at the age of 96, had
her intimate funeral at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, where
she and her husband spent decades welcoming guests and where
a wooden cross Jimmy Carter fashioned in his woodshop is
displayed. Earlier tributes were held in nearby Americus and in
Atlanta.
The former president, now 99 and in hospice care, sat in a
wheelchair next to Maranatha’s front pew, wearing a dark suit
and tie to say goodbye to his wife of 77 years
Maranatha Pastor Tony Lowden said Rosalynn Carter “served
every nation around the world” because she embraced the
teachings of Jesus Christ and “took it outside the walls” of the
church.
“She would say to you today, ‘Don’t grieve for me, for now
I’m free,’” Lowden said, continuing in Rosalynn’s voice as he
described her competitive nature and her belief in salvation and an
afterlife. “’Jimmy tried to beat me here. I got here first. I won the
prize. Tell him I beat him and I’m waiting on him.’”
“But,” Lowden continued, “she would say ‘don’t stop — there’s
too many homeless people in the world. There’s still too many
people who don’t have equal rights.’ ... She would tell you don’t
stop. Become that virtuous woman. And men, if you’re listening,
make room for the virtuous woman.”
The Carter family later accompanied her casket to the burial
plot she’ll one day share with her husband, who also attended a
Tuesday memorial where two other presidents and all the living
first ladies joined the extended Carter family before Wednesday’s
hometown funeral.
Vernita Sampson, a school bus driver and Plains native, drove a
group of area high school students, all wearing Future Farmer of
America jackets, to downtown Plains, where hundreds of people