Rosalynn Carter turned 95 on Thursday, making her the second-longest-lived former first lady, and she marked the event with a celebration surrounding butterfly conservation.
Carter’s birthday also marks an annual statewide count of butterflies, the Great Georgia Pollinator Census, set for Friday and Saturday, to honor the first lady’s passion for the insects. The census is put on by the University of Georgia, with South Carolina also keeping a count of its own.
The first lady planted her own garden featuring the prime habitat for monarch butterflies, native milkweed, in the home she shares with former President Jimmy Carter after reading about the bug’s decline. Since the public can’t visit her garden because of security concerns, she subsequently established the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail in 2019, complete with 76 public and private gardens around rural Plains, Georgia. The trail added a new butterfly statue last weekend to commemorate Carter’s birthday, where the unveiling was attended by the Carters on Saturday.
RED LIST: MONARCH BUTTERFLIES ENDANGERED
Bess, former President Harry Truman’s wife, is the only other first lady to live longer than Carter, dying at the age of 97, according to the National First Ladies Library. Jimmy Carter is the oldest living former president at 97 years old.
