the Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter holiday card collection

Posted bySheila Morris 10 Comments on the Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter holiday card collection

Following the shady corruption of power in the Nixon administration, the American people were ready for a newcomer outside the beltway of Washington, D. C. In walked Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter, a peanut farmer from Plains, who was a Sunday School teacher in a Baptist church with a reputation for honesty and integrity. He was just the recipe needed in the 1976 election after the Watergate years.

I had followed and admired Jimmy Carter even before his run for governor in 1970 so I was hopeful for what his administration could accomplish from the White House. Alas, being an outsider must be much more difficult  than I thought, and for Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter it was a mountain too high to climb. The many good measures he accomplished including the Camp David Accords were often lost in the rhetoric surrounding the hostages in Iran that were released on the day Ronald Reagan took office at the end of Carter’s one term.

Jimmy Carter was only 56 years old when he left the Oval Office for his home in Plains, Georgia, but he and his wife Rosalyn have continued to be advocates for the poor and disenfranchised since he returned home. In 2002 he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his open resistance to the War in Iraq in addition to his countless contributions toward creating and preserving democracy around the world. The Carter Center has been a model for presidential libraries, a thriving institution whose motto is “Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope.”

During the last years President Carter not only wrote a number of books but also found a passion for painting. Pretty and I are always grateful for the Christmas cards we faithfully receive every year from Rosalyn and Jimmy Carter, and we are particularly happy whenever the cards are works of art by the former president.

Enjoy with us.

2018 message: Blessings, love, and peace to you this Christmas

(Cardinals in Winter, original painting by President Jimmy Carter)

2017 message: May the Joy and Peace of Christmas be with you now

and throughout the new year

(Mountain Laurel, original painting by President Jimmy Carter)

(White Dove, original painting by President Jimmy Carter)

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And finally, just for fun, this one designed by Amy Carter who “created this original painting of her with her father carrying a Christmas tree home from the woods.”

Message: May your home be filled with the warmth of family and friends

this holiday season and throughout the New Year

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Stay tuned.

Published by Sheila Morris

Sheila Morris is a personal historian, essayist with humorist tendencies, lesbian activist, truth seeker and speaker in the tradition of other female Texas storytellers including her paternal grandmother. In December, 2017, the University of South Carolina Press published her collection of first-person accounts of a few of the people primarily responsible for the development of LGBTQ+ organizations in South Carolina. Southern Perspectives on the Queer Movement: Committed to Home will resonate with everyone interested in LGBTQ+ history in the South during the tumultuous times from the AIDS pandemic to marriage equality. She has published five nonfiction books including two memoirs, an essay compilation and two collections of her favorite blogs from I'll Call It Like I See It. Her first book, Deep in the Heart: A Memoir of Love and Longing received a Golden Crown Literary Society Award. Her writings have been included in various anthologies including Out Loud: the best of Rainbow Radio, Saints and Sinners New Fiction from the 2017 Festival, Mothers and Other Creatures; Cowboys, Cops, Killers, and Ghosts (Texas Folklore Society LXIX). She is a displaced Texan living in South Carolina with her wife Teresa Williams and their dogs Spike, Charly and Carl. She is also Naynay to her two granddaughters Ella and Molly James who light up her life for real. Born in rural Grimes County, Texas in 1946 her Texas roots still run wide and deep.

10 replies on “the Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter holiday card collection”

  2. I was only 7 when President Carter left office and, well, he’s been viewed in the popular press as a failure as President ever since. But honestly, he’s the only guy who has been President during my lifetime that I would say was a success in many of the ways that matter to me. He notes, for instance, that he didn’t drop a single bomb on a foreign country during his tenure, which is quite different than Obama’s annual 23,000 bomb average.

    These cards/paintings really capture something about their creator.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks, Harry, I think the cards really do speak to who he is.
      Yes, he is often viewed by many as a failure, but I personally believe he was a man who remained true to his convictions despite the clamor of contrary voices around him. That was also his downfall, however, in political life.

      Like

  4. First , I love your header photo. I miss the Christmas report from Texas.
    Second, Amy Carter is as talented as her father, who never fails to impress with what a multifaceted man he is. As a young teenager, I didn’t appreciate his presidency, but now I respect how his integrity, dignity, intelligence, humor, and compassion serve as counterpoint to the Fiasco in Chief. And his paintings are lovely.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hey, hey, Ho, Ho – Fiasco in Chief has got to go!
      I’m so glad you enjoyed this post – Jimmy Carter is flawed, as we all are, but I do believe he always tried to do the best for our country and a world in need all around us.
      Thank you, Ann, for always encouraging me.
      P.S. I miss the Texas Christmas reports, too.

      Liked by 1 person

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