Born: 15 August 1898, United States
Died: 30 October 1983
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Bessie Lillian Gord
The following is shared from The New Georgia Encyclopedia, which allows the use of protected materials for noncommercial educational purposes.
Lillian Gordy Carter was born in Richland in 1898. Her father, James Jackson Gordy, instilled in his daughter a strong interest in social justice. She married Earl Carter in 1923 and made her home in Plains with him. During the first decades of their marriage, Lillian, a registered nurse, worked in a local hospital and often provided care without charge for patients who could not afford treatment, many of whom were African Americans. From 1955 to 1962 she was housemother to an Auburn University fraternity in Auburn, Alabama, and in her late sixties she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in India, from 1966 to 1968.
Known to the public as “Miss Lillian,” the president’s mother was politically active for decades before his election, helping her husband in his campaign for the state legislature, running the campaign office for U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson in Sumter County, and later making more than 600 speeches during her son’s campaign for president. Outspoken on progressive issues in a time before many southern women were politically active, “Miss Lillian” was a role model for many, including her eldest son.
Lillian Carter received the Covenant of Peace award in 1977 from the Synagogue Council of America and was named honorary chair of the Peace Corps National Advisory Council in 1980. She died in Americus in 1983. In 2008 Jimmy Carter published a biography of her entitled A Remarkable Mother.