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All About President Jimmy Carter’s Beautiful Family with Wife Rosalynn & Their Kids
The 39th President of the United States knew he wanted to marry his wife Rosalynn Carter after their first date.
President Jimmy Carter’s legacy not only includes his work as a politician, but also the big family he built with his beloved wife of nearly eight decades, Rosalynn.
The 39th President of the United States died at the age of 100 on December 29, 2024, surrounded by his family. As the longest-living president in U.S. history who served from 1977 to 1981, Jimmy Carter is remembered for his foreign policy leadership, humanitarian work, and advocacy. After his presidency, he founded the Carter Center to expand human rights across the globe and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
The former commander-in-chief was also a devoted family man. And that love and admiration has always been reciprocated. “My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” his son, Chip Carter, said in a statement. “My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.”
RELATED: President Jimmy Carter's "Most Exciting" Memory Shows His Pure Love for Wife Rosalynn
Read on to learn all about President Carter’s long marriage to his wife Rosalynn and their big, loving family full of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
How did Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter meet?
Jimmy met his wife when he was just a toddler. The former president met Rosalynn when he was 3 years old and she was just a day old as his mother, a nurse, helped deliver and care for her as an infant, according to NPR.
The two grew up just a few miles away from each other in the small town of Plains, Georgia, and Jimmy eventually enrolled in the U.S. Naval Academy. While he was back home during a break, they went on their first date in 1945 when Jimmy was 20 and Rosalynn was 17. They saw a movie together, shared a kiss, and Jimmy told his mother the next morning he found his future wife. “She’s the one I’m going to marry,” he recalled telling his mother after their first date in a 2015 interview with Oprah Winfrey.
“She was quiet. She was extremely intelligent,” he added. “She was very timid, by the way, beautiful, and there was just something about her that was irresistible.”
Jimmy Carter was married to his wife Rosalynn for 77 years
While the former president knew he wanted to marry his hometown sweetheart after one date, Rosalynn turned down his first proposal. She told ABC News she had promised her father she would complete her college education.
“She said no,” Jimmy told Winfrey about his first proposal less than a year after their first date. “From then until late May, she maintained ‘No.’ I kept trying, and finally, she said ‘OK.’”
The Carters tied the knot on July 7, 1946 in their Georgia hometown and celebrated 77 years of marriage in 2023. Rosalynn passed away a few months later on November 19, 2023 at the age of 96.
Jimmy said on his 75th birthday that “marrying Rosalynn” was the most important thing he’d ever done. “She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me,” he said in a statement after her death.
On January 9, 2025, the former president will be buried next to his wife in Plains, Georgia.
How many children did Jimmy Carter have?
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter had four children together.
Their eldest child, son John William “Jack” Carter, was born in 1947, followed by James Earl “Chip” Carter III in 1950 and Donnel “Jeff” Carter in 1952. Their youngest child and only daughter, Amy Lynn Carter, was born in 1967.
John William “Jack” Carter
Jack Carter, now 77, followed in his father’s military footsteps and served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. Following his service, Jack worked for INVESCO, an investment management company, and then served as an advisor for the Chicago Board of Trade in Illinois. He later ran for a U.S. Senate seat in Nevada in 2006, though he lost to the Republican incumbent, Sen. John Ensign.
Jack has two children, son James and daughter Sarah, with his first wife, Judy Langford. He’s also a stepfather to his wife Elizabeth Brasfield’s two children from a previous marriage, Sarah and John.
James Earl “Chip” Carter III
Chip Carter, now 74, was born in Honolulu, Hawaii when his father was stationed there during his service with the Navy. And that’s how he got his nickname, as “chip” is Hawaiian for “baby.” Along with his brothers, Chip worked for the family’s peanut business and was later involved with his father’s political career, starting when he was 16 years old, according to the University of Georgia. He previously served as the president of Friendship Force, a nonprofit founded by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter in 1977.
"He taught us the value of hard work, the importance of community, and the power of love," Chip said at his father’s funeral service at The Carter Center. "We’ll carry that forward."
Chip has two children: son James Earl IV with his first wife Caron Griffin and daughter Margaret Alicia with his second wife Ginger Hodges.
Donnel Jeffrey “Jeff” Carter
Donnel Jeffrey “Jeff” Carter, now 72, studied geography and computer cartography at George Washington University and later co-founded a company called Computer Mapping Consultants, according to an archive from TIME. Today, Jeff has been living with Parkinson’s disease for some time, his son Josh told People in 2024, but is living independently.
Jeff has three children — sons Joshua, Jeremy, and James — with his wife Annette, who passed away in 2021. Jeremy also sadly passed away in 2015 at the age of 28.
Amy Lynn Carter
Amy Carter spent many years growing up in the White House during her father’s presidency. She became involved with political activism, making headlines in the ‘80s while protesting CIA recruitment and apartheid. In 1985, her father said he was proud of Amy’s political activism, according to L.A. Times archives. Amy later illustrated her father’s 1995 children’s book, The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer.
Amy has two children. She shares a son, Hugo James, with her ex-husband James Gregory Wentzel, and welcomed her second child, son Errol Carter, with her husband Joseph “Jay” Kelly.
How many grandchildren did Jimmy Carter have?
Carter was a proud grandfather of 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
In a 2015 interview with Jake Tapper, the former president gushed about spending time with his growing family. “We have a big family now,” he said at the time. “We try to hold our family together and just enjoy the family life.”
Speaking to Atlanta News First in January 2025 following his grandfather’s passing, Jimmy’s first and oldest grandchild, Jason Carter, talked about how he’s tried to follow in his footsteps.
“Over time, what I try to emulate is his respect for other people," he said. "He never looked down on anybody, no matter what your job was, no matter where you came from, no matter your condition, and that’s really what I try to do.”
