Amy Carter, the only daughter of 39th president of the United States Jimmy Carter, will be back in the spotlight today for her father’s national funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., after years of leading a largely private life.
But, her college years in New England were anything but private.
Jimmy Carter had four children with his late wife Rosalynn Carter, and Amy Carter is the youngest.
Many of Carter’s family members will be in attendance at the funeral, including son Chip and grandson Jason, who gave brief speeches on Saturday at The Carter Center in Atlanta.
Who is Amy Carter?
Amy Carter, the only daughter of former President Jimmy Carter, was born in 1967, in Plains, Georgia.
She moved into the White House at the age of nine, making her one of the youngest children to live there since John F. Kennedy’s children were younger than 5 when he took office.
Amy Carter attended Brown University, where she actively protested the CIA and apartheid. She was dismissed from the school in 1987 for failing to complete her coursework, according to The New York Times. She has been put on probation earlier in the year for part in a protest of apartheid that broke up a University Corporation meeting. Previously, she has been “arrested for demonstrations at the South African Embassy in Washington, the International Business Machines Corporation office in Providence, and at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst,” the New York Times wrote.
That same year, she was acquitted on charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct on the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus over a protest of the CIA, The New York Times reported at the time.
After she left Brown University she lived in Providence and worked in Boston for awhile, and announced in December 1987 that she wanted “to go a more Southern school.”
Later, she did go back to college, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Memphis College or Art and then in 1996 earned her master’s in art history from Tulane University.
Is Amy Carter a Republican?
Jimmy Carter was clearly a Democrat, and some wonder about Amy Carter’s political choice. There is no public knowledge of her chosen political party, but she has said to keep her personal and political affiliations relatively private, according to New York Times.
She does advocate for human rights and diplomacy, as a member of the board of counselors for The Carter Center.
It’s easy to confuse Jimmy Carter’s daughter with one-time Georgia House Rep. Amy Carter of Valdosta, Georgia, though there is no relation to Jimmy Carter. Rep. Amy Carter is a Democrat-turned-Republican who represented the 175th district from 2008 to 2017.
How old is Amy Carter now?
She is 57 years old, and was born on October 19, 1967. She has two children, son Hugo James Wentzel and daughter Errol Carter Kelly.
Is Amy Carter’s husband, Jay Kelly, in a wheelchair?
Amy Carter married John Joseph Kelly in 2007. Amy was pushing Kelly in a wheelchair during ceremonies Tuesday at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. The family hasn’t commented as to why Kelly is in a wheelchair, as he was not in a wheelchair in November 2023 at Rosalynn Carter’s funeral.
Jimmy Carter grandchildren
In addition to Amy, Jimmy also had three sons: John William “Jack” Carter, James Earl “Chip” Carter III, and Donnel Jeffrey “Jeff” Carter.
With those children, Jimmy had 22 grandchildren and great-grandchildren total.
