Guide to the 21st century were used there is a mismatch between our agent brains and the morn world we livein today. At 10 pm musician Michelle Bonner makes about her life growing up korean american in eugene oregon with crying at each mark. Watch book tv every sunday on cspan2 and find a local schedule on your Program Guide or watch online a time at booktv. Org. Rosalynn carter, do you remember when you and president carter started having conversations abouthim running for president i do. When was that conversation . It was very interesting. We had a friend told jimmy he ought to run for president. We couldnt even say the word. I didnt tell anybody because we kept it very quiet. And but then once he decided he would do it, that was when he could hardly say im going to be president. It was just something that we never ever dreamed would happen. And but it was exciting, i was teexcited about it. I had campaigned the whole last year before the governors for him and it was horrid and amy was a baby. But i enjoyed it. I learned so much about our state. We have 159 capitals, i knew the capitalof every county. And thats how i got involved in Mental Health issues, running a campaign in virginia. A big Mental Health facility hospital that had been a big exposc and the Mental Health assistance guide had been passed. This was 63 and this was 1966 when he first ran forgovernor. We got in late because our leading democratic candidate had a heart attack. But they were moving people out plof the hospital because they had room for 3000, it was awful and were moving them out before they had any facilities and there were no services in the communities and everybody darted talking, what will your husband do if hes elected governor of georgia. I learned so much about what was going on and i worked about Mental Health and the first month the Governors Commission on improved services, so when he told me about that i thought this is for me a chance and it was so much fun to me. I loved going into peoples homes when we first started campaigning for president i went to florida in both the two primaries we had and i have been working in the Office Supply business. When we got home from the Navy Virginia had me. I didnt work the first year but i started helping him and he only had seasonal labor. I started working for him and said why dont you visit the farm i knew how much they could get for their corn, we had a corn mill. I loved it. I was so excited and have been able to learn all about georgia and i was able to learn about the country and i thought hewould be a good president. Mrs. Carter, when did you know during that campaignyour husband would be elected . We never doubted it. I dont think anybody in our whole campaign thought we would lose. Maybe you have to have that sort of my two men but we campaign all the time just like he was going to win. What was the peanut brigade . The peanut big day was a lot of our friends, started just in georgia but we would campaign and it was worthwhile. They paid their own way. In fact we have no money. Everybody in the campaign had to find a house to stay in. They would be able to spend the night with them or either that we had to pay for a hotel. That couldnt happen now cause, not with the money that you have to have even with the nomination. Rosalynn carter, january 20 1977, what do you remember about that day . It was inauguration day. It was exciting. Whose idea was it to walk . He didnt tell me till the night before. Didnt tell anybody else except the six or seven other agents. The secret Service Agents didnt notify security. They didnt want him to walk at all but i guess he just thought it was better if i had been anticipating him walking down pennsylvania avenue. That everything would be different if maybe we shouldnt do it if thats why i didnt do it. But anyway it was really wonderful. January 20, 1977 youre the first lady of the United States. How do you prepare to become first lady . The hard part for me was going from the supply business to theGovernors Mansion, a beautiful Governors Mansion. It was the outgoing governor had lived in it for 10 years. Authentic furniture all the way through and i went to see the governors wife. And i asked her who did the cooking and she said i do. Who served papers, i do. She said id like to see your office which she said i dont have one , its my staff is when she started having an office, in the capital they handled my correspondence. I said do you make speeches and she said i let the governors mother do that and all that we had in the house were trustees from the prison. First thing i did was hire a housekeeper. And then we talked the prisoners to cook and serve papers and i developed a fairly competent staff. We had to hurry because that music club have invited me to entertain van clyburn. He was coming to perform in atlanta and on january 30 we actually moved in the Governors Mansion so he had an aunt in this area and i called her because shes an extremely wonderful person and she came to help me. We put tuxedos on the president which was new and different for them and anyway we had a wonderful meeting and then i got her to organize to take people through the Governors Mansion because i went the first time state patrolman scouting the tours and i thought that didnt suit me so and susie had a list of people that came to help, every day and the mansion was open the way i had to learn everything. Had to learn staff, i found an error and my sister that helped me, we for instance when we entertain, one of the first entertainers we had was a man who had read his biographer and his talent and what he did and it sounded perfect. We had alot of racecar drivers , and they were coming with us so we got him and he stood up to sing, he say opera, if you can believe. After that we learned we had to audition everybody. When i got to the white house everything was already done. I didnt have to worry about what we were going to serve for any of those things. She would make plans and bring them to me and it was really wonderful. And amy was three years old when we moved to the Governors Mansion. She had never known anything else and the Governors Mansion the only thing i would say is that you couldnt get from the upstairs where we lived to the kitchen without going through the tourists and any learned three years of age to walk through the tourists like this. She got to where she would walk right straight through them without even seeing them. I remember when we got to the white house and she went to school the first day there was any the way she had done all her life and everybody felt so sorry for her. Because it was just part of the life and actually after that happened on the first day the press together and decided not to bother me anymore. So that was really wonderful to the white house, we didnt have to worryabout that. Where did you first meet jimmy carter . Planes has a population of 634. I think i knew everybody in town. There were no girls my age in town at can i drink some water . I knew him but he was three years olderthan me. But his little sister who was three years younger than i would stay in town if we had a basketball game or some event at the school she would stay with her grandmother and she we became close friends. She was my best and growing up. This was ruth. And he graduated from high school in 16 and we only kept grades back then and i was 13. There was no way i ever thought i would go with jimmy carter and i didnt go with him until he came home. Before he was first class he came home from the naval academy. And the night before he was going to leave, but ruth and i plotted because i had fallen in love with his photograph on the wall. So she would call me and say he had a month leave and i would go out there and he would be gone and one day we were farmhouse. Fairly close to the house. And everybody in town used to call School Events and things like that one day she said somebody had used that the night before and they were going out. Cleanup. And that night i was at Church Meetings at the door with youth meeting during the week. Ruth with her boyfriend drove up and he got out of the car and he asked me to go to the movie with him. I went to the movie with him and went to the railroad station to see him off at nine and we started writing letters to each other at christmas time he asked me to marry him and i told him yes. I was young and i had promised my father i would go to college. I have not finished college. I went to annapolis at the weekend of the ring dance i dont remember what the it was when i asked him again he asked me again i and i accepted. It was july 1946 you said your father diedwhen you were young. 13. I was always for children, brothers and my sister was four years old. My father developed leukemia. I didnt know he was sick. I had been going to a church camp in the summer and they told me we dont have enough money for him one day i came home from school and my dad asked me if i would still like to go to the camp but i didnt know he was going through the oihospital to see what was wrong and he died just maybe that was in maybe may and he died in november. How did that affect your roleas the oldest child . Everything changed. I was oldest one. My mother had neverwritten a check. She went to college for two years and had a teachers number, and back then they brought groceries and had planes Mercantile Company bought clothes and things and they would send the groceries to the house and my dad would pay for it. When he was on his deathbed he called us all in and told my mother that she wanted him to sell the farm and she had to because he wanted it all to go to the kids and i think i know. So the next year her mother died. He was an only child. And mama died not even, we have no idea she was sick and my grandmother lived on afarm outside of town. When he came back in she was leaning over. She was crying and she was dead in the chair and somebody call my mother 11 months after my dad had died and she me that depending on him so much. I cant imagine anybody doing that, i was getting ready to go to school and i heard this screening in the hall and it was tough. Worked in a Grocery Store and then worked in the school lunch and when i was in high school she worked at a restaurant. So i was campaigning. I went campaigning after christmas. I came back home and my husband that her brotherto said brothero call me. He went to see my mother. She had to get up every morning at 7 00 a. M. Finchch had to come back later in the afternoon. But my grandfather came to live with us when my grandmother died. So my mother had not slept for hours the postmaster did not want to get up early and he did not want to stay late. But anyway. I said mother, dont you enjoy being able to sleepsa in in the morning . She said its not that its just nobody things i can do good work anymore. That made an impression on me. And so when jimmy was president i became interested in working with Mental Illness because there were no doctors to care for people with Mental Illness. I note geriatric doctor. He passed an age discrimination law. The people on the federal government could work as long as they wanted too. People outside could work until theyre 75. So i worked a lot on that. Rosalynn carter you have always been a political partner to your husband, is that a fair statement . Ive been a partner. He was in the navy for seven years after he got married. We had three boys the first two years after the first read onene baby he was gone for two years is on battleships. Back then had to serve two years before he go. He was gone monday through thursday every week that duty off one night i had to take care of everything. And then when we got home i began working in the farm supply bobusiness. I think that is when we really develop this Good Partnership we i could advisee him and just developed into a really wonderful partnership. I did not campaign when he ran for the senate. I kept the business while he campaigned. But then, i campaign when he ran for governor thats the first semi campaigned. But then when he got in the governors race i learned all of the issues and campaigned in did the same thing when he is running for president. I think it was the first time, i know lady bird had come through planes and trains. I think it waspe the first time the women had campaigned. I got in the car with a friend and i wanted to know if i could campaign along the way in the towns and pass out brochures, look up the radio w stations. We started going toward antennas because they were radio stations. [laughter] this might be just a music station where they played music. They would have no idea is that my husband is running for president i would like for you to interview me and at the present of what . I saidd president of the United States and theyd say you got to be kidding id say no im not kidding. They have no idea what to ask for the first day was over at five or six questions of things i wanted people to know about jimmy. I came home and said i can do it. What i learned was everybodys the same they want good families, in good homes they want good things for their families. They want a church. Usually they wanted a place to worship. G they want to make a living and have a good life. Everyone wants the same think tg regions have other things. But just in general people want to be happy and have a good home and a good family. In your book first lady from planes, you write you are more political than your husband, what did you mean by that . He says what he thanks no matter what it is and sometimes i would get on him. Because i think you have to be political in a certain way. You have to be honest and you have to say the same things. But still you have to cater to people sometimes i think. Know what they want and need to be able to influence them to vote for you. And it is not being dishonest. Its finding out what they want and letting them know how youru are going to help them with it. On the things that they want. Just being political. But jimmy think something needs to be done, and needs to be done now. Ann he was in office. I dont think he ever did anything that was not controversial. [laughter] i didnt like controversy all the time. We went Rosalynn Carter, and the white house to hold press acconferences, traveled solo, acted as the president s emissary. How did you develop the issues you wanted to talk about or became expert at . I worked on Mental Health i have the initiative on Mental Health. I toured the country. I worked problems of the elderly and a lot of that came from seeing what happened to my mother. Because that was in the campaign. But also, and campaigning they took me where there were a lot of democrats. So i went to a lot of nursing homes, facilities for older people. Consult what great needs there were in that area so that influenced me. I had to work on immunization in georgia but had good immunization program. And dale was a later a senator or he was a senator when jimmy was elected. He was governor at the same time jimmy wasnt at governors goves conferences the wives wouldr gt together. And betty worked with the centers for Disease Control on a really good immunization program. She talked me into doing it. And so two weeks after got to the white house she calledd me and of course i was ready to work on immunization in the whitee house. That was one of my great victories. As immunization was required by schoolage and only 15 states. There is a little bit if theres an argument about 15 or 17. The first year we were working with betty and secretary we got it in all 50 states. That was exciting. With this big meeting in washington i go from one subject to another. We had a big meeting in washington to celebrate with people from all over thene country. Y. The next day theres not one word in a paper about it. I was so upset so i called joe i said i know there was a camera there. He said it was ours but nobody was interested in that news the session. I got upset with a prostitute, because they covered my Mental Health work might the first few meetings i had. Then they never showedd up anymore. One of the things i wanted to do was bringt attention to the issue, how terrible it was. And what few services there were. Iic think just getting it out in the public, thats what i did in georgia. Theres a good program in georgia by the way. But they just did not come. I would cover my Mental Health is just not a sexy issue. And that i did not like. But i never did get very much coverage for it. But we toured the country, found out what was needed and develop legislation. Pass the Mental Health systems act of 1980. It passed through congress one jimmy wasre involuntarily retired from the white house. An incoming president put on a shelf never implemented. One of the greatest disappointment of my l life. Now have Mental Health symposium we have a Great Program here. One of people worked with me in the white house did a comparison of what we did in 1980 with the Affordable Care act is almost identical. You just past parity was announced here the final regulation, i had parity in the 1980 systems act. Things dost not move very fast d Mental Health im so thrilled t now we have the Affordable Care act coverage we also had integration in the legislation combining Mental Health and substance abuse. See what you and bet ford work that together . That is right. After we left the white house but have go to washington she would get republicans i will get democrats and we m some progress. See what your pblems were known as becoming best friends very goodds. The jew and betty ford have the same relationship . Yes we developed a really