Rosalynn: So Many Goals

As she prepared to move her family into the White House--and assume its responsibilities--Rosalynn Carter talked with TIME Correspondent Bonnie Angelo, who filed the following report:

Eager, even impatient, to get on with an agenda of her own, the new First Lady is excited rather than awed at the prospect of life in the White House. The candidacy began as a family effort, and the presidency will continue as a family undertaking. Two of the Carters' sons and their wives will live in the White House. Says Rosalynn: "Chip is going to work with Jimmy. We don't know yet what he'll be doing, but he can represent Jimmy anywhere. Jeff wants to finish college, maybe at George Washington University. And Chip and Caron's baby is due the first week of March."

Secret Staircase. All the Carters will help out with nine-year-old Amy, who initially did not want to leave Plains. On her first tour of the Executive Mansion, she scampered through its nooks and crannies and was enchanted to learn about the secret staircase behind a hidden panel that links the second and third floors. She picked out her room, the one with the pink rug--and decided that Washington would be a nice place to live after all. The new First Lady plans no changes in the White House. "I expect to bring my clothes and my sewing machine," says Rosalynn. "There are no material things at home that I'm tied to, that I've got to have with me."

At the dinner table, the center of family life, Southern-style meals will always begin with grace. Says Rosalynn: "We hold hands--Amy insists on it--and ask the blessing, 'God is great, God is good. Let us thank Him for our food.' " Sometimes it gets more involved when Amy produces her toy toaster that pops up cards bearing Bible verses and prayers. Then, over dinner, the whole family talks about the things they have done that day.

Rosalynn intends to be deeply involved in the substance--not just the window dressing--of programs for mental health and the elderly. "Jimmy will let me assume as much responsibility as I will. These last two years, I have seen the problems, and I feel that I can help with some of them. Jimmy has always said that we--the children and myself--can do anything."

Another job that industrious Rosalynn sees for herself and the family is to serve as goodwill ambassadors: "I want to go everywhere!" She clearly relishes the prospect of using the White House to help accomplish her goals. "There were so many opportunities for me when Jimmy was Governor-and during the campaign I felt there would be all kinds of opportunities for me if Jimmy became President. And the more I saw all the problems, I thought, if somebody does something, it's got to be us."

No Liquor. The social life of the White House will reflect the Carters' purposefulness. Rosalynn expects that this President will follow the example he set as Governor. "He's never been one that sat around or danced, except a dance or two. He comes down, speaks to everybody, eats dinner, then says goodnight. By 9:30 he was upstairs working." Nor will liquor be served in the Carter White House. "I've been doing a lot of reading about the White House," she says, a shade defensively. "It was a tradition to serve only wine until recently." She notes that she served only wine in the Governor's mansion, "and it saved me money--I didn't have to have bartenders."

Jimmy Carter says, "Rosalynn is an almost equal extension of me." There is the same soft manner superimposed over gritty determination, the same dedication to God and hard work, the same self-confidence self-taught. It disturbs her that Jimmy Carter is still so little understood. "As I look back on it, it really is amazing that he could win--that we could win. People knew Ford, and he was comfortable. But they really did not know who Jimmy Carter was. They just took him on faith."

She thought long and hard for her own key to the man. "I think he's very unusual. He's complex. He has a lot of different interests, a lot of different sides." She settled on two aspects that make her husband who he is: his roots in Plains and his constant hard work. The decision to leave the Navy and return to Plains gave them a life of total sharing--they worked together to build their business, they made a team venture of his campaigns.

They also shared an insatiable desire for self-improvement that went far beyond the limits of Plains. "We studied books on the great artists, on the great operas and music appreciation. And we studied those things together," Rosalynn recalls, with a measure of pride. "One Christmas, Jimmy asked his mother for the complete works of Shakespeare, and we memorized some Shakespeare. It was a very fulfilling life. I could never sit and drink coffee and talk about babies and clothes." Even their family vacations reflected the meticulous Carter planning and the need to accomplish worthwhile goals. "When we decided to take a month's trip to Mexico, we got the Spanish book and tapes and really studied. We worked hours and hours--and when we went, we stopped in places where no English was spoken, so we had to use our Spanish."

Their roots in Plains are almost mystical to Rosalynn. "To have roots is so important. Everybody needs a place they call home, a place that doesn't change. When I go home to Plains, I know people there care for me, they will do anything for me. I think that's one thing about Jimmy that appealed to people--he did have roots, he did have that stability, a sense of belonging and knowing who you are."

Religious Rebirth. She sees his religious commitment as part of this, and scoffs at the stories of his dramatic conversion. "Jimmy did talk to Ruth [his evangelist sister, Ruth Stapleton] about her relationship with Christ, and she did have an impact on him--but there was none of this going out under the pine trees and having some sort of religious experience." She also denies reports that he was despondent after his defeat in 1966. "I don't think losing the Governor's race had anything to do with it [his religious 'rebirth'[. He never went into any kind of despondency. He came home, and the next day he said, 'I'm going to run in four years.' "

In Rosalynn's view, Jimmy Carter wants most for his presidency "to set some kind of moral tone for the country, to have people live together and care and be concerned about each other's needs." She is convinced that people who say now that they do not really know who Jimmy Carter is will be pleased. "Some of the things I read about him bother me --about him being cold, calculating, ambitious. It is not a true picture. He is ambitious--only because of what he can do to solve the problems, not selfishly. And it is not true that criticism bothers him. He could sit and listen to Lester Maddox say ugly things about him day in and day out and not be bothered."

There are other little-known sides of Jimmy Carter. The Carter who concentrates best when he "spreads his papers out and puts on music, the louder the better, except he knows I don't like it very loud. Classical records, country music--he listens to any kind." Or the President-elect who, with his Secretary of State-designate Cyrus Vance, in Plains "fixed dinner, got up and cooked breakfast, made their own sandwiches for lunch and cleaned up the kitchen"--all without complaining--while Rosalynn was away.

Rosalynn looks forward to the White House, certain that like the Governor's mansion, "it will draw the family together. You are kind of isolated there; you don't really see your friends except in receiving lines. Maybe I ought to worry about the White House--but I don't."

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