The roads surrounding the Carter Presidential Center are still closed Tuesday morning as a tribute service is planned for former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. Monday night, the public had an opportunity to pay respects to Carter, who lied in repose in inside the Carter Center in Atlanta.More than 40 years ago, it was at the center where the Carters worked to remove the stigma from mental illness. People filed in to pay their respects to the former First Lady. Carter Center leaders say Rosalynn Carter was ahead of her time on the topic back then.Rosalynn Carter wasn’t just known for her pioneer efforts surrounding mental health when she left the White House decades ago. She and her husband, President Jimmy Carter, helped build homes across the world with Habitat for Humanity. WVTM 13 spoke with The CEO Jonathan Reckford. He’s been working with the couple since 2005 and he shares some of his favorite memories with Mrs. Carter.Other visiting Georgia residents, like Jill Welch, stopped by to pay her respects too, she says, “Rosalynn is just a huge humanitarian, amazing woman. And it’s just time to pay our respects for all the wonderful things she’s done,” Welch describes what it was like inside the Carter Center, “It’s very beautiful. Somber, beautiful flowers. Very quiet, very respectful. It was a warm experience just to pause and remember a wonderful woman.”“I think another favorite memory was we built two years in a row. The only time we’ve ever done that in Haiti after the devastating earthquake. And we were all camping together and we were in a tiny little guesthouse with the Carters and I think was after dinner and a couple of different evenings, they just started telling stories about life in the White House and life in the campaigns,” Reckford said.Carter was 96 years old when she passed away in her Plains, Georgia, home under hospice care on Nov. 19. That was two days after the Carter family said she entered hospice care at home….
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