Away From Home: Letters to My Family - Carter, Lillian, Spann, Gloria Carter | 9781416576600 | Amazon.com.au | Books

Away From Home: Letters to My Family - Carter, Lillian, Spann, Gloria Carter | 9781416576600 | Amazon.com.au | Books








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Away From Home: Letters to My Family Paperback – 1 May 2008
by Lillian Carter (Author), Gloria Carter Spann (Author)
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Lillian Carter was one of the most loved and admired women in the country. Mother of a president, she was a strong, resolutely independent woman with a mind of her own, determined to bypass the barriers of age and sex.

In these letters to her daughter Gloria that she wrote during her two-year stay in India as a Peace Corps volunteer, we hear the voice of a courageous woman with a sense of humor and an abiding integrity as well as curiosity, who welcomed new customs and fresh faces. Mrs. Carter discovers a determination that brings her peace within herself. And her readers take a daily walk with an extraordinary woman.

Mrs. Carter's letters reveal the ideals, commitment, and emotions of that early generation of Peace Corps volunteers. They are a powerful demonstration of why Jimmy Carter acknowledges the inspiration he drew from his mother, to follow her example.


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Bill Hepburn

5.0 out of 5 stars What a wonderful collection of letters that both capture Miss Lillian's experiences ...Reviewed in the United States on 11 March 2015
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What a wonderful collection of letters that both capture Miss Lillian's experiences and give great insight into who she was as a person. I was in India as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1964 to 1966 and could relate to much of what she described. I remember many of the people and places from her book. I found it fascinating and surprising that she really lived the same as most volunteers in India during those years. I am sorry that our paths never crossed because I am sure I would have enjoyed meeting her in person.

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Amazon Customer

5.0 out of 5 stars funny, an a nostalgic trip back to the 60'sReviewed in the United States on 22 March 2015
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Anyone who thinks they are too old to get involved should read this book. Lillian Carter took a big challenge at age 67 and ran with it. When I think my age is an obstacle, I just think of Lillian Carter's adventure. Her letters are inspiring, funny, an a nostalgic trip back to the 60's.

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P. Sharpe

5.0 out of 5 stars If you enjoyed "A Remarkable Mother" by Miss Lillian's sonReviewed in the United States on 30 January 2015
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If you enjoyed "A Remarkable Mother" by Miss Lillian's son, Jimmy Carter, this volume will fill you in on the hardships and accomplishments of Miss Lillian's two years in India as a Peace Corps volunteer. It wasn't easy, and these letters tell her story.

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Carol Swarbrick Dries

5.0 out of 5 stars Miss Lillian in Service - to the country and humanity!Reviewed in the United States on 23 June 2017
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Candid reactions and real adventures for this "First Mother" in the Peace Corps. Intimate thoughts reveal a woman who spent her lifetime in service, while being quite a character!

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nt

5.0 out of 5 stars Good readReviewed in the United States on 24 August 2013
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Read her son Jimmy's book about her, which lead me to this one. What a remarkable lady. Too bad there aren't more like her.

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President Jimmy Carter on Miss Lillian, A Remarkable Mother

President Jimmy Carter on Miss Lillian, A Remarkable Mother




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2,446 views Feb 20, 2023President Jimmy Carter speaks to Rich Fahle of Borders about A Remarkable Mother, President Carter's loving, admiring, wry homage to Miss Lillian Carter, who championed the underdog always, even when her son was president. Jimmy Carter's mother emerges from this portrait as redoubtable, generous, and forward-looking. He ascribes to her the inspiration for his own life's work of commitment and fait


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Transcript




foreign
[Music]
Jimmy Carter who is the author of a
brand new book called The remarkable
mother thank you so much for joining us
today President Carter I'm delighted to
be with you and with borders
Miss Lillian was such an enigmatic
figure such an extraordinary woman in
the book on its face is definitely a
biography a story about an extraordinary
woman and her family
this is also a story about a woman who
redefined herself and who who found a
way to live adventurously all throughout
her life but especially in her in her
middle life well mama was an indomitable
character and she tried to devote every
day of her life to doing exciting and
interesting and adventurous and
unpredictable and gratifying things and
she was strong-willed enough not to
worry about public criticism
or even the loss of some friends and she
would tackle the most controversial and
important uh events of problems in
society
in in a incredible fashion uh for
instance she saw when I was a little
child
in an isolated community that we only
had black neighbors no white neighbors
that the ravages of racial segregation
that had been in place then for almost
100 years should be ended and so she
just set out on her own to disavow any
legal constraints
even though the Supreme Court of the
United States and the Congress and all
the churches and all the schools said
racial segregation is the law of a land
she said it doesn't apply to me and that
was especially difficult in the South oh
yeah we were in the deepest part of this
of a deep south and so she did that and
that was a characteristic of a life
all the way through until she was 70
years old she was in the Peace Corps in
India still dealing with disadvantaged
people who were Untouchables mostly
suffering from leprosy and so forth she
was over there once again giving
everything she had as a registered nurse
to try to help those people have a
better life yeah and the first part of
the book is really a story of a small
town life frankly it's your mother
Lillian who met Earl and and they're
coming together and they're starting a
family and your father Earl was a strong
character as well but but your mom
really found a really strong voice as a
wife and as a mother at a time when you
said that southern matriarch or that
strong female matrac was such an
integral part of that sort of post-civil
War era it was because so many of the
men were killed during the Civil War so
that meant that that widows survived and
they had to be head of the family so
there was a kind of a custom then even
much later when I came along not to
exalt women who were independent and and
strong-willed and in some ways dominant
so it was a special characteristic of
some southern women mother
continued that her her parents knew the
Reconstruction days and they remembered
what happened after the Civil War my
grandfather her father talked about it a
lot but mother inherited some of that
privilege I would guess for a southern
woman to be exceptionally strong
and she was
blessed in many ways to be a registered
nurse because being a part of the
medical profession gave her some degree
of ability to withstand to be impervious
to condemnation because she reached out
to blacks and treated them as equals all
her life
you're talking the book about the
storytelling that you'd have in front of
the fire and and how important books
were to your family and to your mother
especially she read constantly in fact
she started a habit which my wife and I
still haven't and I think all my Ken
folks have of reading it at the table
because she didn't want to waste those
precious hours just eating food so she
would read at the table and my data
didn't much approve but she would get
permission from my daddy for us children
also to read yeah at the table so my
wife and I do the same and our children
did which precipitated a lot of
arguments or debates while we're eating
meals so we would read some provocative
thing in a newspaper or a magazine or a
book and then we start an arguing about
it so we debated it with each other and
that's one thing that kind of introduced
us to the political world
you say too in the book that when you
were reading your mother said everything
was cool you didn't have to be working
or doing anything else so you all read a
lot you know we did that's true my daddy
was a very Stern disciplinarian when
Daddy gave a command or laid down a rule
uh we were expected to follow it and if
we didn't we were severely punished
which was a custom in those days I got
five
major whippings while I was growing up
and I remember all of them a mother
would would see me and all my sisters
commit some so-called crime
while during the day and so she would
hasten to give us a very mild punishment
so when my daddy came home later in the
day she would say Jimmy did so and so
but Earl I've already punished him she
did not punish himself she's trying to
protect us from my daddy absolutely well
in 1953 though your dad passed away
again and and that marked a changing
point in your mother's life and in mind
yes you came back to playing after my
daddy died and so from 50 1953 on and I
never knew but one parent I was and I
was 16 years old when I left home I was
in the Navy about 12 years so mother
when I was even an adult a young adult
an actionable officer she really helped
shape shape my life but she did Blossom
forth after your father died obviously
she's just starting to now feel her way
into this new life she decides to spend
eight years as this fraternity house
mother with a bunch of raucous college
kids that's true that's just uh an
unusual choice right there you must have
known right at that moment that your
mother was going to take A New Path well
I did but it was well off enough my dad
left the money enough so she could buy a
new automobile every two years and she
bought a Cadillac so she would take her
new Cadillac over and turn it over to
those boys 96 of them right to use any
way they wanted to and then when they
tore it up or wore it out she would get
a new one and so she really treated all
of those boys as her own children I used
to accuse her of hearing more about them
than she did her real children but if
they got in trouble of any kind instead
of going to their parents to confess
that their girlfriend was pregnant or
they had violated the university rules
or got caught cheating on an exam they
would come to my mother and she was
there
you know in real term she was not only
their house mother she was she acted as
their loving parent yeah and you say in
the book that for for to the end of her
life some of these Kappa Alpha brothers
would come seek out Miss Lillian and
find her just to say hello and exactly
reconnect that's a wonderful and I was
always surprised to say they were still
out of jail yeah but they did quite well
absolutely well she had a good effect
you know um your mother was uh was had a
fun Spirit too to her she was a huge
baseball fan was at the very first
baseball game of Jackie Robinson played
in yeah she and my father went on One
Vacation a year
it was after we laid by our crop that
means we we got Pastor Paul we had to
plow the crop and before harvest season
so they had time off and they would go
each year for two weeks to a baseball
town to St Louis or to Cincinnati or to
Chicago or to Boston New York or
Philadelphia somewhere wherever they had
major baseball and they would stay two
weeks and at that time the teams weren't
moving around the nation like I do now
with airplanes right so they stayed at
home for a good while and they didn't
have any night games so they could watch
maybe a doubleheader baseball game and
then be free that evening to go out on
the town so that was a very delightful
vacation and she knew about the upcoming
prowess of Jackie Robinson he was from
Georgia by the way not too far from my
hometown so she and my daddy were there
the first game he played for the
Brooklyn Dodgers and and so she adopted
the Brooklyn Dodgers as her fan as her
team the rest of her life so when uh Ted
Turner bought the Braves I would quite
often sit in Ted Turner's owner's box
and my mother would go with me right
when they played the Dodgers she would
scream for the Dodgers she had one of
the most raucous voices you could hear
all over the stadium and either before
the game or afterwards every every
Dodger player would come by and give my
mother a love and a hug and a kiss and
and then of course
Tony Lasorda would come by also right
and then when I got to be president
later
my mother had Tony Lasorda's telephone
number which I'm sure he regretted and
she watched all of the Dodger games on
even on the west coast to a television
antenna and she would call her sort of
after the games and give him a piece of
her mind if he did something that she
didn't like she had a lot of interesting
experience and later she was a great
admirer of Muhammad Ali and it's hard to
remember then but he was condemned in
this country very severely
during the second World War I turned to
Vietnam War because he he was a draft
Dodger and he was also a Muslim and so
now he's looked on almost universally as
a great favorite but then he was really
condemned by many people my mother
adopted him maybe because of that so she
she abandoned me and my campaign for
running for president one time to go to
New Orleans to see him fight for the uh
for the Heavyweight Championships all
through this book you tell these
wonderful stories of your mother these
these stories of her loving all my
children and her these pro wrestling and
the Dodgers along the way your career is
growing now as you're reading this book
it was hard to tell where you were in
your career you did make some minor
references to your career and and you
could draw some of those parallels this
really is a book about your mother it
was hard to sort of discern as you read
it where you are in this book well she
played a role when necessary when I
started running for president
we had Amy who was only five years old
and so we asked Mama to do her share by
keeping Amy and after a few months so
mother got impatient with that and
decided she wanted to go on a campaign
Trail also so then we turned Amy over to
rosen's Mother also in Plains All of Us
from Planes and so mother went on the
campaign Trail and she she campaigned
actively for me five days a week every
week right for months and months and she
was so provocative
uh and attractive in her speaking way
and her irrepressible spirit that she
got me a lot of support she and Roseland
were the two secret weapons so by the
time my opponents woke up
they had already lost the election yeah
your mother was always very much into
politics I mean you talk about you know
going back before these folks but Hubert
Humphrey and then Lyndon Johnson and
Bobby Kennedy and later Andrew Young
that she sent uh some some money to when
he was an up-and-coming politician
clearly she was an active person really
engaged in politics in fact in some
cases she said that she listened to
those politicians more than you finished
then the Young when she did me and maybe
he would Humphrey as well not many
people know it but but the founder of
the Peace Corps was actually Hubert
Humphrey
uh John Kennedy got credit for it
because he happened to be president when
the legislation passed so Mama admired
Hubert Humphrey for the Peace Corps and
uh and he uh singled Mama out for
special attention while she was in India
yeah what would your mother think of
this presidential election that we're
going through right now with with Barack
Obama and Hillary Clinton and John I
think he would be exhilarated
to see the possibility likelihood maybe
of a black man a white woman being
elected president
and I think she would look with favor on
John McCain because I was a Navy man he
was a Navy man he was in prison I admire
him too still peacekeeping here still
peacekeeping I think so yeah well you
I'm telling him well I tried everything
across the aisle you know Rose and I
decided when I left the White House that
we wouldn't publicly endorse
you know in any of the democratic
candidates we don't get involved
directly in the in the primary campaign
because we overseas and everything a lot
and so we we don't we won't make a a
public decision until after the primary
season's over
and we're approaching they can mention
and then we'll make a choice
well that that part about your mother
going to the Peace Corps is to me the
most inspiring part of this book mostly
because you can follow your mother
through the series of letters some of
which you put in here and Other Stories
that we heard from some of the other
participants how she evolves as a person
she had already taken steps to your
point to reach out and to give back to
the world but when she went she there
was a point where she wasn't sure she
was going to stay it was very difficult
for her she was quite disillusioned
because Mama asked to go to any place
that was poverty stricken and where the
people had dark skin
so they sent her to India and she began
to learn at the University of Chicago
right here as a matter of fact uh how to
speak Hindi she thought she was going to
New Delhi and be a nurse but Mrs Indira
Gandhi he was a prime minister of India
ordained at that time a very strict
Family Planning program so instead of
coming to New Delhi mother was sent down
near Bombay to a little village called
me Crowley and and instead of nursing
sick people she was put in charge of
imposing very strict Family Planning
regulations on those poverty-stricken
right Untouchable people but her roles
expanded while she was there and and
what's what's the most inspiring part I
think about the book is to see how your
mother began to understand that while
maybe she couldn't change the world that
those that she came in contact with she
could directly affect and she could
improve the lots of of everyone that she
touched and yeah
their stories of you sending gifts to
her and and and she passed them on other
people and she would say
this is a great I'm passing it on to
someone else and you should know that
you've made two people happy me and the
people he would literally give all of
her food away she was constantly hungry
and she would write us letters about how
hungry she was so we would send her
peanut butter you know and different
kind of can uh vegetables but she
gave it all away and and this and she
wasted away when she finally came home
uh from the Peace Corps and when we went
to meet her at the airport in Atlanta
she couldn't walk
they had to bring her out in a
wheelchair she had lost 35 pounds and
she was already thin when she went and
uh but Mama
became finally a spare time after her
normal working duties she began to help
a doctor in a local clinic and So
eventually she became so invaluable to
him that the owner of the village of Mrs
Goodrich let her transfer from family
planning to nursing so then mother took
care of lepers and others that had
terrible diseases and she was in her
glory she thought it was the most
wonderful thing that ever happened to
her well there's a picture there's a
there's a wonderful picture in this book
of your mother and a young girl a girl
that she helped teach while she was in
India this was a daughter of the
gardener in that Village who worked for
the rich folks and he would sneak
vegetables and give them to my mother so
she could cook them in her little
apartment and she didn't have any way to
repay the garden up and so uh she
decided she didn't have any money so she
decided that she would teach his little
girl six years old how to read and write
in English and get her started on an
education very few of those very poor
people had a chance to to get educated
there was a lot of illiteracy there so
she taught the little girl and and the
gardener took a photograph of my mother
sitting on a rock teaching his little
daughter two years ago we went back to
India my wife and I did to build habitat
houses we built a hundred homes and near
Bombay I picked out a place where my
mother had been in the Peace Corps and
we met the rich folks that owned the
city still the town and they brought
this little girl in to meet me in
Roseland and she was obviously now a
grown woman she had gone on to get a a
doctorate and she was a president of
University and it was the young girl
yeah same young girl and that was a kind
of impact my mother had on other people
and she probably had no idea of people
that she was touching along no she did
yeah she did
how has your mother and and all that she
did and and especially in her in her
second half of her life how has that
affected you and all the work that
you've done with the Carter Center
and with everything else Habitat for
Humanity well I don't think there's any
doubt that uh that my whole family
including me you know has been affected
by my mother including even my my
grandchildren one of whom went to the
Peace Corps because my mother had done
so
but but I think I'm not bragging about
it but you know I think I'd arrived from
my mother a sense of Human Rights
as she treated the Civil Rights Movement
when I was a child when I became
governor
and made my inaugural address she was
sitting on on the reviewing platform and
I made an announcement that I had
traveled throughout Georgia maybe more
than any other candidate and I say to
you quite frankly that the time for
racial discrimination is over
and that put me on the front cover of
Time Magazine a couple of weeks later
and when I became president she was on
the reviewing stand and I announced that
human rights would be the basic
foundation for our foreign policy and I
don't think there's any doubt that uh
those statements in my attitude were
shaped at least partially by the example
that my mother said yeah well not only
that she's now set an example through
this book uh for for women looking for
another adventure in their life I think
so anybody that that thinks that their
life is over when they get older or
anyone who's afraid of of criticism if
they do the right thing or anyone who's
searching for a way to put into
practical use their religious beliefs I
think we get a lot out of this book
because my mother set an example not
trying to set an example with just that
was the way she was
she was a Christian and uh
she didn't preach she tried to put into
practical terms her faith she worshiped
the Prince of Peace so she tried to
promote peace she believed in humility
and
and Justice and service and uh
helping people who were despised and
alienated from society reaching out to
them especially
she believed in compassion and love for
people that maybe don't even deserve to
be loved so I think in many ways she
exemplified not only what
religious Faith ought to bring into a
person's life but also what it means to
be a great American
no she did become famous when I was
president but but just on an isolated
form on a little tiny community in south
Georgia she tried to be a great American
she tried to to exemplify the moral
values that made our country great and
that's really why I wrote the book at
this late date after she has passed away
was because of some uncertainty now in
society what can I do as an individual
human being to correct the
the mistakes that Society is making and
can I do it just by myself if I'm going
to be criticized for for going contrary
to custom so I thought that my mother's
example might be helpful there was no
doubt about that I think that the people
who read this book are going to find a
role model and we're also happy here at
borders that you decided now so many
years later but still such a relevant
subject to write this book thanks so
much for joining us today President
Carter nice to meet you thank you very
much good to be with you good to be with
you too thanks
I'm from Atlanta Georgia and I am an
admirer of Jimmy Carter
um
I'm from Chicago and I'm also an admirer
of Carter I think he did great things
during his administration and it's just
great to be able to come out here and
see him and get the book signed today
I'm a big fan of his and all the things
that he has said about his mother is
pretty remarkable we have great
admiration from President Carter and
it's a it's again it's a wonderful
opportunity and this is for my mother
having a good time glad that President
Carter is here I'm very excited to be
here to meet President Carter former
President Carter to be the first
president I've ever met so this is
exciting I'm here just because my mom
really appreciates Jimmy Carter and I
thought it'd be a great Mother's Day
present and it's probably the closest
I'll ever get to a president I'm really
excited
having up to
mountains
[Music]
me to
up over the clouds
[Music]
I could see around
me
everywhere



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'At 68...She Joined The Peace Corps': What Made Lillian Carter A Humanit...

'At 68...She Joined The Peace Corps': What Made Lillian Carter A Humanitarian


MSNBC

9,692 views Feb 23, 2022

'Miss Lillian,' a new documentary on the life of Lillian Carter, mother of former President Jimmy Carter, looks at how she passed her humanitarian values onto her children. Longtime ABC WH correspondent Sam Donaldson joins Morning Joe to discuss. »

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'At 68...She Joined The Peace Corps': What Made Lillian Carter A Humanitarian

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Transcript

now to a new documentary about the

pioneering life of former president

jimmy carter's mother it's entitled miss

lillian here's a clip

after jimmy

had got my nomination for president

all three television networks had their

mobile units outside the train depot

here in plains that was campaign

headquarters

well she was a favorite of a news media

every morning on my way into

headquarters

i would stop by each trailer and have a

cup of coffee

let's say she knocked in my door first

knock on the door oh mr lynn come in oh

well i just thought i'd stop by and say

hello bye would you like some coffee

yeah yes i would i'd like a cup would

you like a little pick up in your coffee

don't mind if i do we take her bourbon

down for a little bit splash in the

coffee and sit and talk i go to the abc

trailer

have a cup of coffee a little pick me up

and she'd say goodbye and she'd go over

the cbs trailer

we'd see her knock on the door

15 minutes or so she'd come out she'd go

to the nbc trailer knock on the door i

think when she left the last trailer she

probably was in good shape a little pick

up every place by the time i got to

headquarters i was one happy gal

everyone needs to pick up in the morning

we appreciated that oh

fantastic joining us now the veteran

reporter and news anchor that you saw in

that clip sam donaldson he is featured

in the documentary having interviewed

lillian carter numerous times during his

long television career i love her i mean

you just can't stop watching her she is

such a character tell us about miss

lillian

well let's say mika i loved her i liked

her son jimmy but without going to that

administration

um it was the mother that really

captured our hearts in the press corps

and i'll tell you she was a liberal she

voted for john kennedy she taught her

children one thing about black people

and that is they were just as good as

white people and they deserve respect

and consideration so when her son became

governor in his inaugural regress and

said to the people of georgia the time

for racial discrimination has ended and

the clan marched around the capitol that

was lillian talking and making one more

thing that really stood out she was

blunt she was plain spoken she said what

she thought

she had you know four children uh ruth

was a faith healer christian faith

healer and billy who ran a gas station

drank a lot of beer

and gloria rode a motorcycle he was a

member of the harley club and miss leon

told everyone that gloria was the

smartest of her four children

and

the fourth one was the president of the

united states but

so what mom

what to me chop liver

you know

also looking at her life sam she trained

as a nurse she worked in a hospital

during the day and again to point to

what the point you just made

about race uh she cared for

african-american families in their homes

i mean she she was ahead of her time

at 68 years of age she joined the peace

corps she went to india for a year she

really cared about people and she taught

her children to care about people when

jimmy carter and his administration said

human rights are on the table with every

country we talked to he was talking miss

lillian said that's exactly right son i

mean she had taught him that

and one more story i'd like to tell you

about her spokenness

that uh

the press secretary told and i wasn't

there that was a woman reporter came in

they didn't like the woman very much she

was a good reporter but

finally gave her an interview with miss

lillian

and the woman sat down and said now miss

lillian your son the governor this is

1976 is going around the country saying

i'll never lie to you

did he ever tell the lie in his life

well miss lillian said according to jody

powell the press secretary uh no i don't

think he did really well maybe a little

white lie ah said the woman

what's the white lie mr lynn

well miss lillian said remember when you

came in i said how nice you looked and

how glad i was to see you

i mean lordy lordy

oh

bless your heart is what she was saying

uh elise jordan you have the next

question that's hysterical sam elise

jordan here i love you that you were

showcasing hello

such a strong southern woman who

obviously had great influence on her son

and i find her story fascinating because

it's one thing for president carter to

have held evolved views on race and

human rights given the decades he lived

in but miss lillian was born in the turn

of the century deep south georgia what

can you tell us about how her upbringing

and background influenced her beliefs

very little i i was on another

assignment in 1898 when she was born but

in just looking at her biography and all

of that

in a small town of archery new georgia

what caused her

to be a person who understood human

rights and the civil rights of everybody

in this country

i'm just not confident to tell you all i

know is that she did and i know she

infused her children with the same view

and jimmy carter would say the same

thing if he were here today god bless

him he's 98 he's doing well

but she was the force in the life her

husband and jimmy's father

was a man of the south i'm not saying

he's a racist i'm not saying that at all

i'm simply saying that he was a

southerner and he didn't have the same

view as his wife

did about all of this but clearly she

ran the family at least from the

standpoint of making the children

hey sam it's richard haas good morning

long time no talk

uh a long time

when uh

here we are we're talking about russia

invading a country well that happened in

1979 with afghanistan we're talking

about inflation being really high we're

talking about a president who doesn't

seem to be bonding with the american

people

you covered the carter presidency you're

you're watching the biden presidency are

you struck by the similarities or the

differences more

what's your take on it

well more the differences i think both

people both men are decent men

both men you don't come to the

presidency as you know richard as well

as anyone saying i'm going to destroy it

well you don't do it consciously at

least i may know of one exception but

the point is

biden's the man of the senate he thought

conciliation let's work together that's

the way we used to do it they discovered

this first year no that's not the way

the republicans are going to do it

if you come to a knife fight richard in

the alley you better bring a bigger

knife

not

here's some saab for the wounds

in the case of

other presidents

they've learned this nixon knew how to

do it

and george herbert walker bush also knew

about washington and you got to know

something about washington i think one

of jimmy carter's problems was he

thought he could just do it because he's

president he meant well well that's not

that's not the way it works and today

richard i want to ask you the question

what's happening

in the donbass what's happening in the

so-called non-invasion which in fact

obviously is an invasion and how do we

react

nika do i have the right to answer that

you go right ahead what are we looking

ahead to today especially coming from

the white house

it's just very hard salmon to think that

it stabilizes there given what mr putin

has said publicly and his vision so we

say for ukraine's reintegration

it's very hard for me to see whether

there's diplomacy or not how this is the

end of it it seems to me it marches

forward and i can see a lot of

possibilities for getting uh things

deteriorating the white house is going

to introduce new new economic sanctions

but i i just don't think they're going

to be strong enough to fundamentally

alter mr putin's mr putin's calculus so

i think this is uh this could be a long

siege

and we better start thinking about how

we sustain it over time

all right richard thank you and

yeah uh sam donaldson will be watching

this play out we'll also be watching

miss lillian uh you can find miss

lillian available to buy or rent now on

apple tv

google play and amazon prime

and

sam donaldson thank you so much for

sharing this with us

thanks mika daughter of the greatest big

i liked him oh

thank you i loved him and really miss

him right now more than ever that's for

sure sam donaldson great to see you

thank you so much

hey thanks so much for watching our

youtube channel you can follow up on

today's top stories and breaking news or

catch up on your favorite msnbc shows

all in one place download the nbc news

app today

Excerpt: 'A Remarkable Mother' : NPR

Excerpt: 'A Remarkable Mother' : NPR



Excerpt: 'A Remarkable Mother'
May 1, 200812:16 PM ET




Bessie Lillian Gordy was born in Chattahoochee County, Georgia, the fi fteenth day of August, 1898, and was one of the most extraordinary people I've ever known. She was the fourth of nine children, two of them adopted "double first cousins," and was described in news reports as "third cousin of U.S. Senators Jesse Helms and Sam Nunn, fourth cousin of Elvis Presley, and mother of President Jimmy Carter." We children thought this diverse heritage partially explained her interest in politics and showmanship, but not some of her other idiosyncrasies.

My mother's great-grandfather Wilson Gordy was the fi rst of his family to be born in Georgia, in 1801. He was descended from Peter Gordy, who was born in Somerset County, Maryland, in 1710. We've never attempted to trace the genealogy further, but some of the older kinfolks always said that the Gordys came from France. Wilson moved to West Georgia near the Chattahoochee River in the 1830s, soon after the Lower Creek Indians were forced westward and land was opened to white settlers. All of his possessions were in a large hogshead, with an axle through the center, which rolled down the narrow openings through virgin timber, drawn by his only horse. He soon became known as the best carpenter of what would be Chattahoochee County. Lillian's grandfather James Th omas Gordy was a wagon master during the Civil War and later county tax collector, and he married Harriet Emily Helms, whose parents came from North Carolina.

Lillian's father was James Jackson Gordy, named after an early hero of Revolutionary War days, and he was always known as Jim Jack. A federal government revenue offi cer in Southwest Georgia and later postmaster in Richland, he became one of the most astute political analysts in his changing communities. Mama's mother was Mary Ida Nicholson, daughter of Nathaniel Nunn Nicholson and granddaughter of Frances Nunn, whose family moved from the Carolinas to Georgia soon after the Revolutionary War.

My grandfather Jim Jack was thirteen years old when the "Northern oppressors" finally relinquished political and economic control of the state in 1876, and it was inevitable that there was still a legacy of North-South bitterness among the older relatives in the earliest political discussions I ever heard. Slavery was never mentioned — only the unwarranted violation of states' rights and the intrusion of the federal government in the private lives of citizens. I remember that my mother was the only one in her family who ever spoke up to defend Abraham Lincoln.

I recorded some of my mother's comments about her family:

"Well, first of all let me tell you about Mama. She seemed to be real quiet, but she never let Papa push her around. For instance, Papa was quite a dandy when he was young. He was engaged to another woman in Cusseta before he even met my mother, and the wedding was all planned. I never did know if it was a forced wedding or not, but when the time came he got on the train and disappeared, leaving his bride standing at the altar. He stayed away about three months, then came back and started courting Mama. When they were engaged, he was twenty-fi ve and she was just seventeen, but Mama was really feisty. She told him she wasn't going to even dress for the ceremony until she knew he was standing by and ready. She sat in a chair in the preacher's house, with her wedding dress on the bed, until Papa arrived at the church next door and the preacher came over and certifi ed that he was there. Only then did she get up, put on her wedding dress, and join him for the ceremony.

"Th e newlyweds moved to a little settlement called Brooklyn, just a crossroad with about a dozen families, where Papa had his fi rst job as schoolmaster. Mama always told us about the fi rst meal she cooked. Papa brought home some oysters, and she said the more she boiled them the tougher they got.

"Mama took care of the house and all of us children, with not much help from Papa. She had three children one right after another, and then Papa's brother either was shot or killed himself, and Mama took his two boys, my double fi rst cousins. Th ey were Catholics, and we made fun of them when they knelt down to pray or said their catechism. So Mama had fi ve babies at once, none old enough to go to bed without help. Th en she skipped three years and I came along, followed by three more — all of us two or three years apart."

My grandmother Ida was calm, a homebody, and seemed to be perfectly satisfi ed with her way of life. She would spend all day in the house and garden, fi rst preparing food for a big family, getting the children off to school, and cleaning the house. Th en she would put on her sunbonnet and work in the large garden, bringing a basket full of seasonal vegetables back into the house.

She always cooked a big dinner at noon, including pies, cakes, or fruit puff s for a constant supply of dessert. After the dishes were washed, she would clean the kitchen, wash and iron the family's clothes, and take care of the kids coming home from school, being sure that they did their chores and completed their homework assignments. Th en she had to prepare supper, including leftovers plus a few fresh-cooked items. She was up each morning at 4:30 and would light up the woodstove while Grandpa, if he was home and it was winter, would make a fi re in the fireplace.

On Sundays, everyone went to Sunday School and church, so Grandma had to prepare most of the large dinner in advance, maybe cooking the biscuits and fried chicken after the services were over. For one afternoon a week, she joined some of the other ladies of the community in a quilting bee, all of them sewing while they discussed aff airs of their families and the community. I can see now that hers was a complete life, not much diff erent from that of most Southern women of the time. She was proud and grateful to serve the other members of her family, who more or less took her for granted, just helping with the chores when she asked them.

My mother told me, "At times when we were raised there were real hard times, but we got by. I can remember when Mama could send me to the store to get twenty-fi ve cents' worth of steak and it would feed all nine of us."

My grandfather was as wide-roving and flamboyant as my grandmother was home-loving and quiet. He was born in 1863 near Columbus, Georgia, and taught school for several years in Brooklyn before moving ten more miles to the larger town of Richland. Jim Jack was a man's man. He was tall, slender, handsome, and always well groomed and neatly dressed. Even on workdays, he preferred to wear a bow tie — never a pre-tied one.

Jim Jack was totally committed to mastering the prevailing political situation, as his daughter, my mother, described proudly: "My father could tell you pretty close to what vote any man would get, not only in the county but even in the whole state. All my life when I was a girl, until I left home to be a nurse, I saw him do this. For local elections, he would write out his predictions of the outcomes and seal them in an envelope. The county clerk would put them in his safe, and then compare the results after votes were counted. But it was just interesting to me to see the lengths he would go to keep up with politics.

They would come in droves to see him."

Grandpa — of necessity — also demonstrated a remarkable understanding of national elections. During years that long preceded a civil service system in the U.S. government, he was nimble enough on his political feet to guess right in several presidential elections, shifting party allegiance to retain his appointment as postmaster in Richland. Earlier, when Warren Harding was elected in 1920, Grandpa went to make arrangements for the position in the small town of Rhine, the only rural Republican stronghold, where federal appointments were dispensed because of political support — or bribes. Th ey had already allotted the postmaster's position but promised Jim Jack the next appointment and gave him an interim job as chief revenue agent for our region. As a former schoolmaster, he kept meticulous records, and I still have one of his notebooks covering two months in 1922, showing that he destroyed thirty-six stills during that time.

Later, I heard my father say that this was one job for which Grandpa and his sons were especially qualifi ed, having done business with most of the moonshiners in the area. Grandpa would take a "sociable" drink on frequent occasions, but I never knew him to be tipsy enough to lose his composure or bring ridicule on himself. He had two sons, though, who had serious problems with whiskey.

Jim Jack's only unswerving political allegiance was to Tom Watson, who was a Democratic congressman in North Georgia but was disavowed by his party when he advocated equal economic treatment for black and white workers and small farmers. Watson joined the Populist Party and in 1896 was nominated as vice president on William Jennings Bryan's Populist ticket. He was elected by Georgians to the U.S. Senate after he changed his political philosophy almost completely and ran on a racist platform.

My grandfather considered his own greatest achievement to be suggesting the concept of rural delivery of mail to Tom Watson, who got the proposal passed into law. Among mementos we inherited from Grandpa were letters between him and Watson on this subject, as well as Watson's biography of Thomas Jeff erson, which, for some reason, was dedicated to the newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst.

A couple of times each year, my mother would get word that "Papa has gone again." Grandpa would pack a small suitcase, get a supply of fl our, meal, sugar, coff ee, side meat, some liquid refreshments — and a good supply of books — and tell his wife, "Ida, I'm going out to the farm for a while." She had learned that protests were fruitless, so she would tell him goodbye and expect to see him again in two or three weeks. They owned a small, remote farm in Webster County near Kinchafoonee Creek with a tenant shack on it, mostly woodland with not enough open land to farm. It was a haven for Grandpa, away from the hurly-burly of home life. When he would finally tire of the solitude or feel that his offi cial duties couldn't spare him longer, he would return home as though he had just been down at the drugstore, with no thought of apologies or explanations for his absence.

It was an accepted fact within our family that the Gordys couldn't get along with each other long enough to enjoy a full meal together. Sometimes on the way to Sunday dinner in Richland after church in Plains, Daddy and Mama would try to guess what would precipitate the main argument of the day. Although my father teased Mother about the Gordys' arguments, I don't remember his family ever having a Sunday meal together.

Grandpa Gordy was a restless man, always preferring to be somewhere else than with his own family or with boring companions. The only exception was my mother, whom he invited to serve as his assistant in the post offi ce until she moved from Richland to Plains. Jim Jack fi nally lost his government job in 1932, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected, and had to become a dirt farmer, trying to support his family on a hardscrabble farm that he rented not too far from where we lived near Plains. I remember him, tall and slender, wearing overalls with a buttoned shirt and a bow tie, walking behind a muledrawn plow in a futile attempt to control Bermuda grass in a scraggly cotton fi eld.

Recently I found a small homemade diary book that Grandma Gordy kept from March 1932 until August 1936, during the depths of the Great Depression. The occasional entries concentrate on the status of her children, especially Tom, who was traveling all over the Pacifi c Ocean in the navy. During the time they were farming near Plains, one entry was extraordinarily personal: "Papa is somewhat peeved tonight about his mule, afraid he is sick. He said if the mule died I would have to look out for myself. I said I hope he dies then. He knew I did not mean that, but seems like I just can't say a word lately but what he takes it for the worst. Such is life." Th en she wrote, "I should not have written the above, but have no rubber on my pencil to spoil it out."

Later, she wrote, "Th e old mule died Friday. Th is is two mules to die since we've been here. We will get along some way. God will not forsake us." Another entry, in February 1935, describes a notable characteristic of her husband: "J.J. has gone to Richland. Seems it would make him sick to not be going all the time. He loves to be on the go."

My mother always remained very proud of her special relationship with Grandpa. She told me, "There was no doubt that I was Papa's favorite. Everyone in the family knew it. I guess one reason was that I didn't always accept what he said as the gospel truth, and would argue with some of his opinions. Looking back, I see that I was always careful not to go too far with it, and to back off if it looked like he was getting too aggravated. In a lot of cases, though, particularly when he and I were alone at the post offi ce, I think he liked for me to speak up so we could have something of a debate.

"I read more than anyone else in the family — except him, of course — and I tried to learn about things that interested him. Sometimes he would give me a book he had just read, and we both looked forward to a fi erce discussion about the subject. One thing I liked about working at the post offi ce was that both of us could fi nd time to read on the job. Another thing was that we probably knew more than anybody else about what was going on around Richland. Papa handled a lot of telegraph messages, and taught telegraphy to two of his sons. He had a way of absorbing the news, but always cautioned me about not repeating gossip we heard if it would hurt anyone. I loved Mama and Papa, but I have to admit that I was ready to leave home and go in nurses' training, and when I got to Plains I didn't go back very often."

I remember that after I graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, in 1946, I borrowed my daddy's automobile and drove the eighteen miles from Plains to Richland. I stopped by my grandparents' home and enjoyed some sweet milk and blackberry pie while telling Grandma about my new career. She then told me that Jim Jack was downtown in Richland, "probably at the drugstore." I walked there and, sure enough, found my grandfather with some other loafers assembled around one of the glass-topped tables, drinking Cokes and engaged in a heated discussion of some local issue. I stood behind him for a few minutes, until one of the men noticed my uniform and indicated my presence to Grandpa.

When he turned around, I could tell that he didn't recognize me, and I blurted out, "Grandpa, I'm Jimmy, Lillian's son." He shook my hand and said, "Boy, I'm real glad to see you again." Then he turned back and continued his conversation. I stood there a few minutes, then went back home and off to my first ship. That was the last time I saw him before he died a few months later.

Th e temperaments of the younger Gordys mirrored the stark differences in the characters of their parents. Th e girls had professional careers, married well, and raised fairly stable families, in some ways like their mother, but the boys were more like Grandpa — without his reading habits, interest in politics, or self-restraint regarding alcohol.

Copyright © 2008 by Jimmy Carter

A Remarkable Mother by Jimmy Carter | Goodreads

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A Remarkable Mother


Jimmy Carter

3.89
383 ratings

77 reviews

"A Remarkable Mother" is President Carter's loving, admiring, wry homage to Miss Lillian Carter, who championed the underdog always, even when her son was president. A registered nurse, pecan grower, university housemother, Peace Corps volunteer, public speaker, and renowned raconteur, Miss Lillian ignored the mores and prejudices of the racially segregated South of the Great Depression years. She was an avid supporter of the Brooklyn Dodgers (because she happened to attend the first major league baseball game in which Jackie Robinson, from Cairo, Georgia, played), was a favored guest on television talk shows (usually able to "steal the microphone" from hosts such as Johnny Carson and Walter Cronkite), and an important role model for the nation. Jimmy Carter's mother emerges from this portrait as redoubtable, generous, and forward-looking. He ascribes to her the inspiration for his own life's work of commitment and faith.

GenresBiographyNonfictionPoliticsBiography MemoirHistoryPresidentsMemoir
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222 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2008
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349 people want to read

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Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

James Earl Carter, Junior, known as Jimmy, the thirty-ninth president of the United States from 1977 to 1981, creditably established energy-conservation measures, concluded the treaties of Panama Canal in 1978, negotiated the accords of Camp David between Egypt and Israel in 1979, and won the Nobel Prize of 2002 for peace.

Ronald Wilson Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter, the incumbent, in the presidential election of 1980.

He served and received. Carter served two terms in the senate of Georgia and as the 76th governor from 1971 to 1975.

Carter created new Cabinet-level Department of education. A national policy included price decontrol and new technology. From 1977, people reduced foreign oil imports one-half to 1982. In foreign affairs, Carter pursued the second round of strategic arms limitation talks (SALT). Carter sought to put a stronger emphasis on human rights in 1979. People saw his return of the zone as a major concession of influence in Latin America, and Carter came under heavy criticism.

Iranian students in 1979 took over the American embassy and held hostages, and an attempt to rescue them failed; several additional major crises, including serious fuel shortages and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, marked the final year of his tenure. Edward Moore Kennedy challenged significantly higher disapproval ratings of Carter for nomination of the Democratic Party before the election of 1980. Carter defeated Kennedy for the nomination lost the election to Ronald Wilson Reagan, a Republican.

Carter left office and with Rosalynn Smith Carter, his wife, afterward founded the nongovernmental center and organization that works to advance human rights. He traveled extensively to conduct, to observe elections, and to advance disease prevention and eradication in developing nations. He, a key, also figured in the project of habitat for humanity. Carter particularly vocalized on the Palestinian conflict.

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Carol
825 reviews

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July 30, 2016
2012 REVIEW:
What an amazing woman, mother, and humanitarian (went into the Peace Corps at 68!) she loved her family, Loved the community no matter what their color/ethnicity was and she loved her soap operas! Sad that her husband, 2 daughters, son Billy and her own life was cut short from pancreatic cancer.


2015 REVIEW:
I re-read this book once again. I'm the kid who loved watching The Homecoming and later on TV, The Walton's. The life the Carters lived in Georgia, was somewhat like Waltons. Jimmy Carter lost almost all his siblings and parents, and unfortunately, Jimmy Carter has just been diagnosed with brain cancer. Most of his family, died from Pancreatic Cancer. Pray for Jimmy Carter.
biography-female jimmy-carter mother
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Richard
1,127 reviews26 followers

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October 30, 2018
This is a remarkably intimate look into the life of President Carter and his relationship with his mother. The back cover photo shows the real hard scrabble life they led during the early years. She lived a life of white privilege during a time when it wasn’t so much better than their African neighbors.

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Sabrina
29 reviews

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September 9, 2008
I throughly enjoyed reading this book about Mrs. Lillian. What a fascinating woman she was. It amazes me how much energy and spunk she had in her later years. There is one part of the book that I will share with you that I felt was very amusing:

After Jimmy's inaugural speech,

Press Secretary Jody Powell shouted, "Let's stay close together, and don't any of you talk to the press." Mama stopped and said, "Jody, you can go to hell. I'll talk to whom I please." she was immediately surrounded by television and radio microphones, and the first question was, "Miss Lillian, aren't you proud of your son?" I leaned forward to hear her answer: "Which one?"

What a pistol Miss Lillian was back then. Great lady. Great book. Love every bit of it.



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Noelle Kukenas
112 reviews10 followers

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October 12, 2009
After reading several of President Carter's books, I recognize a few of the stories mentioned between these pages, but he includes lots of 'new' stories as well. The devotion he had for his mother did not cloud his perspective and the author is honest while being discreet about some of the adventures of 'Miss Lillian.' I hope I am half the woman she was if I am fortunate enough to live a long life.

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Magdalena
59 reviews

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December 17, 2010
Despite the Political realm of the Carter family Lillian Carter has been depicted as a whimsical, open-minded woman, who knows how to be herself in all kinds of situations and whose son, Jimmy Carter, greatly benefited from her presence during his presidency. It's the kind of American tale you rarely hear of and the kind that gives you hope as you remember the family that you have and came from....overall, I'd read this once a year at least, to recreate that spark of inspiration within.
inspirational
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Kellie
1 review2 followers

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March 17, 2009
My Mother-in-law gave me this book to read! Excellent! Lillian Carter was indeed a remarkable mother and woman. Miss Lillian ignored prejudices, loved the Brooklyn Dodgers, was a favored guest on talk shows. She was generous to a fault and committed to great causes. Defintley a good, fast read.

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Carol
411 reviews1 follower

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April 14, 2009
Every mother would relish a son who felt this way about her. What a remarkable writer and storyteller Jimmy Carter is!

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Niki
33 reviews

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December 26, 2010
One of my all time favorite books. A must read.Jimmy's mother was simply amazing. Very simple and uncomplex.

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Cheryl
1,211 reviews68 followers

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October 14, 2020
I have started driving on a regular basis (2 days per week) and I am behind on my reading goals, so I wanted an audiobook. This is the only one I had on my shelf and I was a little worried, because the last audiobook read by President Carter was about policy and was hard to listen to for any length of time because he cited numbers and such which are harder for me to follow in audio format. Luckily, Miss Lillian was a character and Jimmy Carter loved his Mama, so this made for a livelier experience.

I was very young in the Carter years and I only knew that Miss Lillian had a feisty reputation but very little of the details of her personality. I was so impressed by her work in the Peace Corps in her later years and her views on racial equality, women's rights, and general decency. This gave me a real sense of where Jimmy Carter got much of his outlook on life, including the lack of snobbery and political sophistication which gave him so much trouble once he got into office. Miss Lillian and Rosalyn were clearly very influential in shaping his approach as a grassroots campaigner and were effective in helping humanize him to the voters.

I was impressed by the friendships Miss Lillian made, even before Jimmy became President and some before he was governor of Georgia, including Johnny Carson and Muhammad Ali. She followed sports more avidly than politics and was a champion of integration in all aspects of life despite being from a rural town in southern Georgia where popular opinion would make it unlikely. Her career as a nurse was important to her and played a big role in her service in India, which gave her experience that made her valuable to the Carter Administration as a second-level personal ambassador. And she was never afraid to speak her mind, with a lot of the quotes in the book being good for a chuckle or even the occasional guffaw. I was glad to have the chance to get to know her through this book and I think the title is an accurate portrayal of who she was -- or a part of who she was, because she was remarkable in many ways.
audio
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Josh Kitchen
36 reviews

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November 30, 2023
“I want to ask you a question,” the reporter said. “Your son ran for the presidency on the premise that he would always tell the truth. Has he ever lied?”

Mrs. Carter said, “I think he’s truthful. I think you can depend on his word.”

The reporter again asked if he had ever lied in his entire life.

His mother said, “Well, I guess maybe he’s told a little white lie.”

“Ah, see there!” the reporter exclaimed. “He’s lied! If he told a white lie, he has lied.”

The reporter was still not satisfied and asked her, “What is a white lie?”

And then Lillian Carter said, “It’s like a moment ago when you knocked on the door and I went to the door and said you looked nice and I was glad to see you.”

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