Rosalynn Carter, wife of former US President Jimmy Carter, has died at the age of 96. She was undergoing a few days of palliative care – at home, in Georgia – (which her husband, who stopped medical treatment in February as his condition deteriorated, was also being treated for).

In the United States, it is considered one of the first lady Most politically active since Eleanor Roosevelt. At the end of May, he said he was suffering from senile dementia. The couple married in 1946. But in his autobiography (“A Whole Life, Reflections at Ninety”) the former president told an anecdote: It was his mother, a nurse, who gave birth to his life partner, and who a few days later took him to visit the newborn. The two would meet again eighteen years later, never to be apart again.

They are both Christians and came from rural Georgia to the corridors of the White House. Her handwritten notes are interspersed with many of her husband’s archived speeches. When Carter failed to win re-election against Ronald Reagan, He and his wife have not given up public commitment. They have traveled around the world supporting human rights and democracy projects. During her presidential years, Rosalyn instead chose to highlight the issue of mental health. At that point, Congress formally recognized the role of the First Lady, granting her funds and staff.

His activism led to legislation (later withdrawn by the Reagan administration): Mental Health Systems ActWith the aim of funding mental health centres. While another of her battles — whether mental health should be covered by health insurance — only became a reality in 2008. “I was more of a political partner than a politician’s wife,” she recalled in her 1984 memoir.