Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter‘s only daughter has been laying low since her highly-publicized childhood in the White House and her activism during her college years but after her heartfelt words during a November 28 tribute service for her mother, who died on November 19 at 96 years old, it is clear that Amy Carter is still the brave person we’ve known her to be since she was a kid.
Now 56, Amy is a mom, an artist and a human rights advocate but she’s rarely in the spotlight today after living out her youth and young adulthood in front of the media. Amy is the youngest of Carter’s four children. In addition to Amy, the former president and first lady also have three sons—John William “Jack” Carter, 76, James Earl “Chip” Carter III, 73 and Donnel Jeffrey “Jeff” Carter, 71.
Entering the White House at just nine years old, Amy was the first young child to live there since Caroline and John Jr. left the residence at five and three years old after the assassination of their father, President John F. Kennedy, in 1963. No other young children would live there until a 12-year-old Chelsea Clinton moved in 1993. Despite the glaring media attention, Amy became known for her refusal to conform to expectations.
After the White House, her early adult years were filled with activism and arrests before eventually getting dismissed from college. To find out more about the rebellious life of Amy Carter, keep reading.
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Amy Carters White House Childhood
Image Credit: Karl Schumacher - White House via CNP/Getty Images Amy was just nine years old when her father became President. She was the proud owner of a Siamese cat named Misty Malarky Ying Yang who attended some of the state dinners hosted by the Carters.
Amy made headlines just a month after her dad entered office when she was seen reading at the dinner table during a state dinner in 1977. On another occasion, she was famously asked by a reporter if she had a message for the children of America and looked the reporter straight in the eyes before answering: “No.”
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Amy’s Daring Activism
Image Credit: Sygma via Getty Images After her father’s presidency, Amy finished high school in Georgia before attending Brown University. She began taking courses like Native American literature, feminist frameworks, plant biology, and linguistics. However, during her time there, Amy was making headlines for her activism and arrests — more on that next.
Eventually, Amy was dismissed from Brown after her sophmore year for incomplete coursework. However, classmates have questioned if that was the real reason, citing Amy’s dedication to her studies as a cause for their doubt.
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Amy Carter Has Been Arrested 3 Times
Image Credit: Bettmann Archive via Getty Images In 1985, Amy was arrested outside the South African Embassy in Washington D.C. while protesting apartheid.
In March 1986, she and 13 other Brown students were arrested while protesting IBM’s business in South Africa during ongoing racial segregation.
In November of that year, she was arrested for a third time, alongside activist Abbie Hoffman who is pictured here before their trial. This time Amy was protesting CIA recruitment at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “There were, I would say, 60 or 80 cops in riot gear, billy clubs, mace, with four or five police dogs – it was really terrible,” Amy said in an interview about her arrest. ”That was the final decision, of not wanting to leave those people there by themselves.”
In a highly-publicized trial, Amy and other protestors were acquited after it was determined that because the CIA was involved in criminal activity in Central America and other hotspots, preventing it from recruiting on campus was a neccessity and equavilent to trespassing to save people from a burning building.
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Amy Later Became an Artist
Image Credit: Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images After leaving Brown, earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Memphis College of Art and, later, a master’s degree in art history from Tulane University in New Orleans.
She illustrated her father’s children’s book in 1995.
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She Enjoys a Quiet Life
Image Credit: Charles Plant via Getty Images After her high-profile activism, Amy went on to lead a quiet life. In 1996 she married Jim Wentzel, pictured here, before they welcomed a son, Hugo James Wentzel. They divorce in 2005 and in 2007 Amy married John Joseph “Jay” Kelly. They share a child named Errol Carter Kelly.
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Her Continued Activism
Image Credit: Rick Diamond/Getty Images While she’s no longer attending protests or giving interview, Amy is still continuing to devote herself to important causes and is reported to be a member of the board of counselors at her father’s organization, Carter Center, that advocates diplomacy and human rights.
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Her Tribute For Her Mom
Image Credit: Brynn Anderson-Pool/Getty Images During a memorial service for her mother, Amy opted to read a 75 year old love letter written by Rosalynn for her husband.
“I chose something that is hard to read without crying,” she said during the service. “My mom spent most of her life in love with my dad. Their partnership and love story was a defining feature of her life. Because he isn’t able to speak to you today, I am going to share some of his words about loving and missing her.”
“My darling, every time I have ever been away from you, I have been thrilled when I returned to discover just how wonderful you are. While I am away, I try to convince myself that you really are not, could not be as sweet and beautiful as I remember. But when I see you, I fall in love with you all over again. Does that seem strange to you? It doesn’t to me. Goodbye, darling. Until tomorrow. Jimmy.”
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