Rosalynn Carter: From mental health to Camp David to the campaign trail, she made her mark

I have an indelible image of Rosalynn Carter in my mind. She is sitting aboard an Air Force jet late at night and everyone on the aircraft – staff, Secret Service, Air Force stewards, journalists – is exhausted and asleep. We had left Andrews Air Force Base before dawn, hitting three or four cities during the rough and tumble 1980 presidential reelection campaign. We were on our way to an overnight stop somewhere in the United States.

Aside from the Air Force pilots, Mrs. Carter is the only one awake. As I open my bleary eyes, I see her face captured by the pin light from above her seat. She’s mouthing words and quietly uttering phrases. At the end of a grueling day of handshakes, press conferences, meeting crowds and local politicians, she’s studying Spanish, a language she is determined to master. It’s a picture of Rosalynn Smith Carter – who passed away Sunday morning at her home in Plains, Georgia, at the age of 96 – that I’ll never forget. Disciplined, focused, dutiful and resolute.