rosalynn carter do you remember when you and president carter started having >> rosalynn carter, do you remember when you and president carter had conversations about him running for president? >> i do. >> what was that like? what was that conversation? jaire it was very interesting. we had a friend that wrote that he thought he ought to run for president. well, we couldn't even say the word that my husband was running for -- i didn't tell anybody because we kept it very quiet. then once he decided he would do it, he could hardly say i'm going to be president. it was just something that

was -- we'd never known it was going to happen. i have campaigned the whole last year before the governor's race and it was hard and amy was a baby and i didn't like to leave her all the time, but i enjoy it had and i learned so much about -- enjoyed it and i learned so much about our state. we had 159 candidates and the capitol of the county and i knew issues in fact got involved in mental health and running campaign with mental health facility and hospital and they've done an expose and the mental health systems act passed in 19. this was 1963 and this was 1966 when jimmy first ran for governor and got beat that time

but we got in late because our leading democratic candidate had a heart attack. they were moving people out of the hospital because people had rooms and what's happening all over the place and they're going up in the facility and there's no services in the communities and everybody started talking to me about what would your husband do if he was elected the governor of georgia. j i just learned so much about what was going on and after we had that election, i worked four years to learn a little bit about mental health and then the first month and office appointed the governor's commission for the emotional handicap and so when he told me about that, i thought, this is giving me a chance to go across the whole country and it was so much fun to me. i just, i loved going into people's homes when we first started campaigning for

president and i went to florida and iowa a lot. those were the two primaries. and in had been working with our lobbyists and when we got home from the navy, jim my had me. i didn't -- jimmy had me. i didn't work the first year but i started helping him and he only had seasonal labor. started working for him and he said why don't you come and keep the office t while i go out and visit the farmers? i would go into iowa to somewhere and might be six people in someone's house. i knew the price of fertilizer and how much they could get for their corn and we'd had a corn mill. i loved it. then i met so much. it was hard. it wasle exciting but i learned all about georgia and i was able to learn about the country and more.

>> mrs. carter, when did you know during that campaign your husband would bee elected president? >> i never doubted -- we never doubted and i don't think anybody in our whole campaign thought we would lose. i mean, maybe you have to have that set of mind to win but we campaigned all the time just like we were goingst to win. >> what was the peanut brigade? >> that was a lot of our friends and they'd campaign for us. >> somebody going on the board their would have him spend the nightsp with him. going for the hotel and he'd

help him and that was the money you have to have even in w the nomination. >> rosalynn carter, january 20th, 1977. what do you remember about that day? >> inauguration day. we walked down pennsylvania avenue in the cold. >> whose idea was it to walk? >> it was jimmy's and didn't tell anybody else except the six secret service agents because we didn't -- well, the secret services agents were our securiy and in fact they didn't want him to walk at all. but i guess he just thought it was better if anybody was anticipating him walking down pennsylvania avenue. but everything would be

different and maybe we shouldn't do it s if everybody knew it. anyway, it was really wonderful. >> january 20th, 1977, how do you prepare to become first lady? >> bye bye bying the hard part for me from supply business to the governor's mansion and beautiful governor's mansion and it was new and allot going governor had only lived in it for two years and several periods, authentic furniture all the way through. i went to see the out going governor's wife after we won and ask who had didsh the cooking? she said, i co. i said who serves the tables? she said, i do. everything i i asked, she said i did it. i would like to see your office. she said i d don't have one.

my office is in my -- my staff is in the governor's and the captain was the governor and they handle my correspondence. and the governor said what have we done? and all the help in the house for the president and then we told them to cook and serve tables, and i developed a fairly competent staff. we had to hurry and the music club of atlanta had invite med to entertain clyburn. on january 30th, we actually moved in the governor's mansion on january 12th.

the president was new and different for them. anyway, we had a really wonderful meeting and i got her toto organize those who could te people through the governor's mansion and when i went the first time the state patrolman went in the holoway and got the two of us and i thought that didn't seem to hold me still. i got a list of people that came and helped, came every day to -- every day they come and the mansion was open and that was anyway i had to learn everything with staff and we learned by

trial and entertained one of the first entertainers we had was sounding perfect. we had a lot of race car drivers and atlanta's speedway and we're coming down and he stood up by saying polite oprah if you can believe -- opera and if you can believe and we learned we had to audition everybody and we just learned by them getting to the white house and going doing the interview and it was quite wonderful and amyit was 3 years old moving to the governor's

mansion. she would -- you couldn't -- in the governor's mansion the only thing i would say is you couldn't get from our upstairs where we lived to the kitchen without going through the tourist. and amy learned at 3 years of age to walk through the tourist like this because everybody was like, that's the baby. that's the baby and she would just walk right straight through them without even seeing them. when we got to the white house and went to school the first day, here was amy going in like this, which she had been doing all her life going through tourists and everybody felt so sorry for her. but it was just part of her life, and actually after that happened on the first day, the press got together and decided not to bother amy anymore. >> where did you first meet jimmy carter?

>> well, georgia's population is 634. i think i knew everybody in town and there were no girls in anyone my town. of course i knew who he was. she'd stay with her grandmother and we game close friends. she was like my best friend growing up. >> this is ruth? >> this is ruth, uh-huh. but he graduated from high school at 16. we only went eleven grades back then. and 13 and there was no way i

thought i'd go with jimmy carter and i didn't go with him till he came home and before he was the first classman and came home from the naval academy. he plotted to get me out there with him and i had fallen in love with his photograph on the wall at home. so she would come in and say that and i'd go out there and he'd be gone. one day we had a pond house and his friend had a pond house and fairly closer than that. everybody in town use it had for events, church events, school events and school events and one day she said it was the night before ande they were going out there and cleaning up. she and jimmy spending the day

with him. the chump meetings standing in the door at the door that was a youthg. meeting one night during the week. i went through the station to see himim off the next night. i was young and i had promised my father on his death bed that i would go to college. i had not finished college -- well, i went to annapolis the weekend of the ring dance, i don't remember when they call the weekend but he asked me again and i accepted. i was still young. >> it was july 7, 1946.

>> that's right. >> you said your father died when you were quite young? >> that's right. i was 13. i was the oldest of four children. i had two brothers and a little sister who was 4 years old. my father developed leukemia. i didn't know he was sick and i'd been wanting to go to a church camp in the summer and they toldth me we didn't have it and one dayr ie came home from school and my daddy asked me if i would like -- still like to go to the camp and i said great. but i didn't know that he was going through at the hospital. i didn't see what was wrong. he died just maybe -- that was in maybe may and he died in november. >> how did that affect your role as the oldest child?

>> everything changed for me. i was the oldest one, my mother had never written a check. she went to college for two years and had a teacher certificate but had never taught. back then in plains, you brought your groceries and plains mercantile brought your clothes and they'd send the groceries to the house and my daddy paid for it all. he told my mother that she wanted him to sell the farm but she had to because she wanted us all to go to school. i think we -- i don't know -- but theea next year her mother died. she was an only child and momma died -- we had no idea she was sick and my grandfather livid on a farm outside of town.

went out to milk the cows and came back in and shehe was leang over tieing her shoe dead in the chair. somebody called my mother 11 months after my daddy died and we'd beenth depending on them so much and said your mother died this morning. i mean, i just can't imagine anybody doing that to her. i was getting ready to go to school and i heard her screaming in the hall where the telephone was. it was tough. my mother went to school -- she worked in the grocery store and worked in the school lunchroom and when i was still in high school, she got a job in the post office and worked there until she had to retire. she hadsh to retire at age 70. it was the law. and us campaigning, this was is 1975, christmas and her birthday is christmas eve and on her birthday she had to retire.

so i was campaigning, i went campaigning afterer christmas ad came back home and my brother said call me as soon as i get home. my mother cried all week long and i went to see her and i said, mother -- she'd had to get and you happen be at work every morning ator 7:00. then had to come back late in the afternoon. but my grandfather came to live with us when my grandmother died so my mother had flexible hours because p the postmaster didn't want to get up early and didn't want to stay late. but anyway,i i said, mother, don't you enjoy just being able to sleep in. she said it'sto not that, it's just that i'm -- nobody thinks i can do good work anymore. that made an impression of me and then when jimmy was president, i did work with teaching. i became interested in working with mental illnesses too because there weredo no doctorso

care for people and actually the discrimination law and people in the federalen government work as long ass they want to and they did a lot of them. >> rosalynn carter, you've always been a political partner to your husband; is that a fair statement? >> i've been a partner, i would call it a partner. when he was there for seven years, we had three boys and close to three years and have one baby and going for two years and back then you had to serve two years before you could go to air force and he was going for monday through thursday and i had to take care of everything. then we got home and i began working in the supply business. i knew him very soon and i think

that's when we really developed a good partnership and we are losing money on it and i could advise him and developed into a really wonderful partnership and somebody was -- i i didn't campaign when he ran for the senate.i i kept the business while he campaigned. but then when he campaigned and then when he got in the governor's race, i learned all thee issues and they did the sae thing when she was w running for president. the first time and lady bird had come through and i think it was the first time he campaigned and i know i got in the car with a friend and went running for

president. we just wanted to know if i could campaign in other states like i did in georgia so i went to florida, we went to florida and stayed 10 or 12 days. we would justt stop along the wy and the towns pass out brochures and look up radio stations and as a matter of fact we started working -- we started going to antilles because there were radio stations and might be a radio station where they played musiche and they would have no idea when i would say my husband is running for president and i'd like for you to interview me. they'd say president of what? president of the united states. you got to be kidding. no, i'm not kidding. they have no idea what to ask me butt before the first day was over, hi five or six questions that i was -- things that i wanted people to know about jimmy, about those things. and i came home and said, i can do it. everybody says what i learn. everybody is the same and there

were good families and good places and homes and good things for our families. they want a church, they want a place to worship. they want to make a living and have a good life. everybody wants the same thing. regions have different other things but just in general people want to be happy and have a good homeme and a good family. >> in junior book, first lady from plains, you write that you are more political than your husband, what'd you mean by that? >> he says what he thinks and sometimes ies would get off tred because political being honest and still you have to pay attention to people sometimes i think. and know what they expect need to n be able to influence them o vote for you.

and it's not being dishonest. it's just finding out what they want and letting them now hoe you're going to help them with it. the things that i have wanted and wanted in the government. i think politically and he -- jimmy. i didn't like the controversy of it all the time. >> rosalynn carter, in the white house, you held press conferences, traveled solo and acted as the president's ambassador, how did you talk about things you wanted to be an expert in? >> i worked in mental health and two of the country room. i worked on problems of the

elderically a lot of that -- elderly and a lot came from seeing what happened to my mother because that was in the campaign. but also in campaigning, they took me where there was a lot of democrats so i went to a lot of nursing homes facilities for older people. i saw what great needs were in that area and that influenced my work. i had worked on immunization in georgia. had a good immunization program. bill bumpus was later a senator and he was elected and he was governor at the same timeim jimy was and they would get together and billy bumpus work with the

center for disease control andim really good immunization control. .... s >> 15 states. whether we argue about whether was 15 or 17 and then working with the secretary of hhs, of all 50 states, i was excited and we had this big meeting. i go from one subject to another. a big meeting in washington, people from all over the country, not one word in the paper, i was so upset so i called -- he said it was hours.

nobody was interested in immunization. i got upset with the press too because they covered my mental health, my first few meetings i had and never showed up anymore. one of the things i wanted to do was bring attention to the issue and how terrible it was and few services there were and just getting it out in the public, that's what i did in georgia. they just didn't come and in the white house, one of the press people and i said, nobody ever covers my meetings, she said miss carter, mental health is just not a sexy issue.

that i didn't like. i never did get very much coverage. we toured the country, developed legislation and passed the mental nexus act of 1980, it passed through congress one month before jimmy was, as he says, involuntarily retired the white house, and incoming president never implemented it, one of the greatest disappointments of my life. and now we have a mental health symposium, a great mental health program here. one of the people who wrote with me in the white house, the program, the affordable care act, he did a comparison of what we did in 1980 with the affordable care act, it is almost identical. we just passed clarity and it

was announced here. the final regulations i had parroted in the 1980 systems act. it is really, things don't move very fast. i am so thrilled now that we have the affordable care act, covers, we also have immigration in the 1980 legislation, combining mental health and substance abuse, behavioral health. >> host: you and betty ford worked on that together? cspan3 >> guest: that is correct. we went to washington, she would get republica i would get democrats and we made some progress. >> host: your husbands wer known as good friends. did you enter betty ford have the same relationship? >> guest: yes. we developed a really good relationship. it started -- we went to sadat's funeral in september. that is when jimmy and gerald

ford began talking a lot of time, and each one, they thought absolutely. and betty, i started working with betty and we developed a wonderful relationship. >> host: there are several first ladies still living. is there a sorority of first ladies in a sense? >> host: i had a good relationship with betty ford and a lady bird. as long as she was alive. that is about it. there's never been a real procedure at events, library dedications for new first ladies. there's never been that kind of thing.

that i had with betty ford and lady bird. >> host: when you were first lady you had a weekly luncheon with your husband. and would attend cabinet meetings. what was the purpose of that? >> host: >> guest: there were always things i wanted to ask, some of what was about family and finances and things going on back home but we also talked about issues. i would say it was more family and personal things we were going over but there was time to do that. almost -- after we were there until august, jimmy stayed at the oval office a good bit in the day and time, didn't go back much at night. in august he started calling me at 4:thirty afternoon. my office was in the east wing.

it has always been in the white house too. he started calling me and said do something and i wanted to be home when amy got home from school. without scheduling anything in that part of the afternoon, we were jogging, exercising, swim, and talk about what he had done during the day and what i had done during the day and we had a good relationship. what i learned in the white house was there is no way to know what is happening because of the press. you can't learn from newspapers, you can't learn from what is on tv. when you -- we didn't have computers, the big mainframe still in the white house, nobody ever used them.

this is a long time ago. many years ago. but i couldn't tell. he said everything, he stepped off the elevator, i said why didn't you do that? i had to know. i was touring the country and in february, one day over there, he said why don't you come to cabinet meetings and then you will know how we do the things and that is when i started with cabinet meetings. a lot of people don't know cabinet meetings have staff around the room. he was in a wheelchair. a cabinet member. i sat by him next to the door and i went any time i could at the cabinet meeting because i thought it was necessary for me to know about the decisions

being made and so forth so that i could explain to people in the country as i toured around. >> host: did you receive criticism for attending those meetings and being the president's emissary? >> guest: i don't think i received criticism from the west wing. they know how close we were and how interested i was but there was all kind of criticism, but you know, i learned in the state senate, that's the hardest because you know everybody and when you get to be governor, didn't like it. and you almost have to in

public life. you have to know your husband does, and lots of things. when jimmy was in the state senate. if you don't think i' m doing the best thing i can do, often except that. my feeling was if they reported things away we didn't like it was because they didn't know it. they didn't know what was going on. lots of times, it is true. and today was the day, to no way to know what is happening. so confused by the time we had our meeting. never knew what was in the loan

because it was so good for us and to have regulations, for the regulations i have been talking to, passed a law in 2008, talking about it. her father was governor and she was a good friend and talking extensively, i am sure, they were in the affordable care act and to answer and as soon as i heard it, i wanted it, really exciting. it was emotional. >> host: was it possible to have a private life in the white house? did the white house feel like

home? >> guest: it felt like home to usause we had been campaigning. i had been campaigning and we were together, not all but two of us, anywhere. we had meals to gather. we made a rule that april you are not going to be there for me you have to check off a little bit. so you know about that. almost every day, sometimes i was not but most of the time when she came over school, and had the lessons, file in, classes, and as i said earlier, i swear if it was raining,

something like that, we had a fairly good family life. it was so precious to us. traveling for two years. >> host: those the white house affect a marriage? >> guest: i think it could. it didn't affect hours, because we just -- partners working together for so long. i could see if the first lady was not particularly interested in the different issues it would be very difficult. but jimmy could talk to me about all of them. it happens that way more and more with first ladies. some of the early first ladies, there were others that were not. >> host: when you look at previous first ladies before

you served, who did you admire? who did you emulate? who did you learn from? >> guest: the closest person i had, the only first lady i had knowledge of was lady bird. she came to georgia to help me with the highway beautification program. the main thing she told me was enjoy it. it is not going to last long. just enjoy it but she did help me a lot. everybody, franklin delano roosevelt was quite wonderful. one person that had a big impact was margaret mead. that i was going to work on mental health issue, we had to

develop this wonderful relationship and she would give me advice, went to canada for a meeting and she was just, i would like to meet eleanor roosevelt. >> host: your husband in 2010 published his white house diaries. did you keep a diary or journal during the white house years? >> i kept them at different times, didn't do much in the beginning but started having my secretary put spaces between events and had that in my bedroom. and it was going to be there now. i did that pretty regularly for a while. at camp david, i kept those notes all the time, from the

first day. >> host: are those public? >> guest: no. >> host: if and when will they be public? >> guest: i don't know. i went through them and edited them. i struck out a few. might not know what i called some of them. cooperating with the jimmy on that. just my personal thought, along with what was happening. i didn't sit in any of the meetings but the whole time coming out of a meeting, i was there. it was incredible, from the heights of excitement, what was going to happen, to the depths of despair. i came home for answers. we didn't know we would be there for 13 days. the last few days i had to go

into town to do some of this. something i had planned. came back one day and this was toward the end. jimmy and hamilton in the swimming pool at camp david. and they thought it was. it was a bad evening. but when i left, the day they came back, jimmy says it is either today or not, just going to have to end it. we had -- we opened that, pbs did our event. i can't remember who it was.

i had to come in and introduce all of them and got a call about halfway through the concert and ginny told me -- didn't know for sure. that was interesting. the helicopter landed. they came in, we were standing by the door, and and -- do you think we could do the camp david accords. sometime?

>> it is okay, it is going to be in washington, opening a theater in washington. early next year. dirksen senate office building 8 would you be there? >> guest: i will be there for it. >> host: another issue i want to ask you about, the uranian hostage crisis. did you keep notes? what were your feelings throughout that whole crisis? how did that affect you as a person? >> guest: it was awful. just waiting for the press conference in iran. we had no idea what was going on in the other way we knew what was going on is they were coming out in a map and thinking about it, we knew it was a family all along and

thinking about the people whose family members were there, what it was doing to jimmy's presidency and it was awful. and i would go out, i would go out and campaign. i had found out earlier, he is so surrounded. to get close enough to people to have conversations like he would, otherwise about their hopes and dreams and thought about what i was doing and what jimmy was doing, i had learned that earlier during his presidency. i would go and everybody would say tell the president to do something.

what do you want me to do? people were talking about it and have them every day. and you know, i believe it is over and he did too. the tv program started, nobody go over it. to think about it. it was awful. i kept up with what i was doing. >> host: when four years were over how tired where you? >> guest: you lose the election in november and that is depressing.

it was depressing but then until january, november, december, january, i just wanted to go home. when i got home i don't know that i was tired. i guess i was tired but i just remember coming home. we lived on the edge of the woods, we had been gone ten years for the campaign. but would set come up around our house, minds and things. we both agreed to write books. it was overwhelming. didn't have time to worry about it. before i left the white house. my mental health legislation. i realized how important it is for a president to have a second term although jimmy

carter would not have changed any. he would not have changed anything. >> host: in your book first lady for planes, you close by saying i would be out on the campaign trail today if jimmy carter would run again. >> guest: all the time after he lost the election, i kept asking if he was going to run again. >> host: you have a grandson just announced her governor of georgia. will you be in the campaign trail? >> i will do whatever he asks me to. graduating from duke university, the law firm has two terms as a state senator. >> host: you had 33 years post presidency, the longest in history. you and president carter has been active.

what do you think of your legacy as first lady, what would you like it to be? >> guest: i hope my legacy continues. and building hope. i hope that i have contributed something to mental health, and improve a little bit the life of people living with mental illnesses but i hope -- i have had great opportunities for so long. to go to africa, we go to africa to her 3 times a year. to go through the villages,

things are coming to fruition, we 've almost eradicated, to get to a village that is no longer anywhere. it is a celebration. one of the things is, to teach people in the country how to do something, we work with people in the villages, they do the work, to go to the village and explain to them if you can get their chief approved. that is what you have to do. if they hear about it from another country, they are so happy you are there. to go back when it has gone from a village or almost, the hope it gives to them, most of

the time it is the first thing they have ever seen that was a success and it is so wonderful to see the hope, something good is happening. don't mean to get emotional. >> host: we are here in atlanta at the carter center for this interview. how much time do you spend in atlanta? >> guest: we schedule one week a month to be here. most of the time we come back more than that. you usually -- this is my weekend. this is my weekend. we have to come back more than that but we schedule that so we can plan travels around it and we travel almost too much. this year, i would be interested to see but maybe not half, but most of the time i

guess most of the time it is not half the time but getting pretty close. the only thing, go to africa, something so wonderful happens if you go from the carter center because everybody -- let me tell you one funny story. we found out that if the heads of state get credit for what they do, if somebody has -- go through it again, a wheat field, wheat crop has grown three times as much as it used to, they get so excited, not my agriculture program. but the word gets around, this

village, there was a farmer who had been named farmer of the year and we went to this village and anyway we are in a village, really wonderful input. the whole village came and there was a little girl about halfway through, go away, jimmy carter is coming. if word gets around and people know it, when we get to that village, to other countries maybe, the word is already around and it is the work of magic sometimes, giving hope to people who have never had any hope of their life ever being

better. >> host: what's your advice to future first ladies her first husband's? >> i would say enjoy it. but i think i have learned that you can do anything you want to. they used to ask me if i thought the first lady are to be paid. if i get paid then i have to do it first ladies are supposed to do but you can do anything you want to and it is such a great soapbox, such a great opportunity. i would advise any first lady to do what she wanted to do. if she doesn't look, another thing is you're going to be criticized no matter what you do. i could've stayed and poured tea and had receptions and i would have been criticized.

as much as i was criticized for what i did and i got a lot of criticism. you learn to live with it. you expect it and you live with it and never let it influence but i would just tell just to enjoy it and do what you want to do and in the process, another first lady will have things she wants to do because women have changed, what women do now has changed from what they did when i grew up. i could be a secretary or schoolteacher, librarian, a few things but now most women -- do what you want to do and don't worry about criticism. >> host: thank you.

>> american history tv saturdays on c-span2, exploring the people in the events that tell the american story. at 6 p.m. eastern, librarian of congress carla hayden hosts a conversation marking president truman's executive order 991 prohibited discrimination in the us motor. also president biden tells the former president's executive order and it's a compliment from an order use at the truman civil rights symposium and at 9:30 p.m. eastern on the presidency, historian h w brands looked at gerald ford in the context of the 1970s when he served as house minority leader, vice president and then president. exploring the american store, tch american history tv saturdays on c-span2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime,

c-span.org/history. >> booktv every sunday on c-span2 features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. at 8 p.m. eastern time, from freedom fast. evolutionary biologist brett weinstein, co-author of hundred gather's guide to the 21st century argues that there is a mismatch between arrington brains and bodies and the modern world we live in today. at 10:00 pm, musician michelle donner speaks about her life and growing up korean american in eugene, oregon with her book crime and smart. watch booktv every sunday on c-span2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime, booktv.org. >> during his