Amy Carter | |
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.jpg) Carter in 2023 | |
| Born | Amy Lynn Carter (1967-10-19)October 19, 1967 (age 58) Plains, Georgia, U.S. |
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| Children | 2 |
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| Relatives | Jack Carter (brother) Jason Carter (nephew) James Earl Carter Sr. (paternal grandfather) Lillian Gordy Carter (paternal grandmother) |
Amy Lynn Carter (born October 19, 1967) is the only daughter and fourth child of the 39th U.S. presidentJimmy Carter and his wifeRosalynn Carter. Carter first entered the public spotlight as a child when she lived in theWhite House duringher father's presidency.
Amy Carter was born on October 19, 1967, inPlains, Georgia. Prior to her birth, the family held a vote whether their parents should try for a baby daughter. According to her brother: "The family voted a year before she was born on whether my parents ought to have a baby daughter, and a year later, there she was. We even picked out her name beforehand—out of a Webster's Dictionary."[1] She was raised in Plains until her father was electedgovernor of Georgia in1970 and her family moved into theGeorgia Governor's Mansion in Atlanta. In 1976, when she was nine, her fatherwas elected President of the United States, and the family moved to theWhite House. Carter attended public schools in Washington during her four years in the White House; firstStevens Elementary School and thenRose Hardy Middle School.[2][3][4] After her father's presidency, Carter moved to Atlanta and spent her senior year of high school atWoodward Academy inCollege Park, Georgia.[5] She was aSenate page during the 1982 summer session.[6] Carter attendedBrown University, where she was known for her activism against apartheid and the CIA. She wasacademically dismissed in 1987, "for failing to keep up with her coursework".[7] Carter later earned aBachelor of Fine Arts degree from theMemphis College of Art[8] and amaster's degree in art history fromTulane University in New Orleans in 1996.[9]
In January 1977, at the age of nine, Carter entered the White House, where she lived for four years. She was the subject of much media attention during this period. Young children had not lived in the White House since the early 1960s presidency ofJohn F. Kennedy (and would not again do so after the Carter presidency until the inauguration ofBill Clinton, in January 1993, whenChelsea moved in.)
While Carter was in the White House, she had aSiamese cat named Misty Malarky Ying Yang, which was the last cat to occupy the White House untilSocks, owned by Clinton. Carter also accepted an elephant fromSri Lanka; the animal was given to theNational Zoo in Washington, D.C.[10]
Carter roller-skated through the White House's East Room and had a treehouse on the South Lawn.[11] When she invited friends over for slumber parties in her tree house,Secret Service agents monitored the event from the ground.[12]
Mary Prince (anAfrican American woman wrongly convicted of murder, and later exonerated andpardoned) acted as hernanny for most of the period from 1971 until Jimmy Carter's presidency ended, having begun in that position through a prison release program in Georgia.[13][14]
Carter did not receive the "hands off" treatment that most of the media later afforded toChelsea Clinton.[12] President Carter mentioned his daughter during a 1980 debate withRonald Reagan, when he said he had asked her what the most important issue inthat election was and she said, "the control ofnuclear arms".
On February 21, 1977, during aWhite Housestate dinner for Canada's Prime MinisterPierre Trudeau, nine-year-old Amy was seen reading two books,Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator andThe Story of the Gettysburg Address, while the formal toasts by her father and Trudeau were exchanged.[15]
Amy Carter later became known for her political activism. She participated insit-ins and protests during the 1980s and early 1990s that were aimed at changing U.S. foreign policy towards South Africanapartheid and Central America.[12] Along with activistAbbie Hoffman and 13 others, she was arrested, while still a Brown student, during a 1986 demonstration at theUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst for protestingCIA recruitment there. She was acquitted of all charges in a well-publicized trial inNorthampton, Massachusetts. AttorneyLeonard Weinglass, who defended Hoffman in theChicago Seven trial in the 1960s, utilized thenecessity defense, successfully arguing that because the CIA was involved in criminal activity in Central America and other hotspots, preventing it from recruiting on campus was equivalent to trespassing in a burning building.[16]
Carter gave an interview onLate Night with David Letterman in 1982. She illustratedThe Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer, her father's book for children, published in 1995.[12][17]
She is a member of the board of counselors of theCarter Center, established by her father, which advocates forhuman rights anddiplomacy.[12]
From 1996 to 2005, Carter was married to computer consultant James Gregory Wentzel.[18][19] They have a son, Hugo James Wentzel, who in 2023 was featured on the second season of reality TV competition showClaim to Fame.[20][21] Since 2007, she has been married to John Joseph "Jay" Kelly. They have a son.[22][23]
Little House on the Prairie actressAlison Arngrim impersonated Carter on the 1977Laff Records comedy albumHeeere's Amy.[24]
My last book,Sharing Good Times, is dedicated "to Mary Prince, whom we love and cherish." Mary is a wonderful black woman who, as a teenager visiting a small town, was falsely accused of murder and defended by an assigned lawyer whom she first met on the day of the trial, when he advised her to plead guilty, promising a light sentence. She got life imprisonment instead ... A reexamination of the evidence and trial proceedings by the original judge revealed that she was completely innocent, and she was granted a pardon.
Rosalynn Carter, who believed Prince was wrongly convicted, secured a reprieve so Prince could join them in Washington. Prince was later granted a full pardon; to this day she occasionally babysits the Carters' grandkids.
Art Buchwald said that people are overreacting to Amy sticking her nose in a book between courses and that sometimes he wished he could read during such dinners.
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