Lillian Gordy Carter

Bessie Lillian Gordy Carter (née Gordy) was born on August 15, 1898, in Richland, Georgia. She was the daughter of James Jackson Gordy and Mary Ida Nicholson Gordy. Her paternal family was connected to Berry Gordy I, the grandfather of Motown Records founder Berry Gordy.

In 1917, Carter volunteered to serve as a nurse with the U.S. Army; however, the program was canceled. She worked for the U.S. Post Office in Richland before relocating to Plains, Georgia, in 1920. There, she was accepted as a trainee at Wise Sanitarium and subsequently completed her nursing degree at the Grady Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1923. Her family initially disapproved of her career choice, but she continued her training and became a recognized figure in her community. Known as "Miss Lillian," she promoted racial integration by allowing Black individuals to enter her home through the front door and socialize in her living room, practices atypical for the era. She attributed her liberal views to her father, who maintained cordial relations with Black workers and demonstrated racial equality in his employment as a Post Office operator.

Lillian Gordy married James Earl Carter immediately after her graduation. They had four children: James Earl Carter Jr. (Jimmy Carter), Gloria Carter Spann, Ruth Carter Stapleton, and Billy Carter. Although she officially retired from nursing in 1925, she continued to work as a nurse practitioner for her husband's business employees and the local community.

Carter was religious but did not regularly attend church services. She organized a Bible study at home and was involved in social activism, particularly in efforts toward desegregation and providing medical care to African Americans in Plains, Georgia.

Following her husband's death from pancreatic cancer, Carter attended Auburn University from 1956 to 1962, serving as housemother for the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity. She later managed a nursing home in Blakely, Georgia.

In 1966, at age 68, she became the oldest applicant to join the Peace Corps at the time. After a three-month training program, she was sent to India, where she worked for 21 months aiding patients with leprosy at the Godrej Colony near Mumbai. Her work there was recognized by Emory University with the establishment of the Lillian Carter Center for International Nursing. The Atlanta Regional Office of the Peace Corps also named an award in her honor for volunteers over age 50.

Carter's prominence increased during her son Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign and tenure. She published two books in 1977: *Miss Lillian and Friends* and *Away from Home: Letters to My Family*, which was based on correspondence from India. She appeared in a cameo role as herself in the TV movie *Lucy Calls the President*. Her personality and down-to-earth style drew media attention, highlighting her Southern hospitality.

In her later years, Carter struggled with health issues. She was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after Jimmy Carter left office in 1981. Her illness went into remission, but her daughter Ruth Carter Stapleton was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died in September 1983. Carter herself died from metastatic breast cancer on October 30, 1983, at the age of 85, in Americus, Georgia. She was buried at Lebanon Church Cemetery in a simple ceremony beside her husband.

Her children and grandson, Dr. S. Scott Stapleton, also succumbed to pancreatic cancer. Jimmy Carter, her eldest son, was diagnosed with melanoma in 2015, which was treated successfully. A nursing center in Plains was dedicated in her honor in 2001, and she was inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement in 2011.