When Charles Hammer, a theoretical physicist at Iowa State University, dialed the Georgia telephone number he was told to call in 1975 – at precisely the time he was told to call it – he had every reason to assume he was calling the campaign office of Georgia’s little-known ex-governor who was running for president.
So he was ready to introduce himself to any functionary who answered – and say he’d decided to sign on to Jimmy Carter’s longshot Iowa caucus campaign committee.
“Hi, Charlie. How’s Hazel?” Surprised, Hammer recognized the soft southern drawl. It was Rosalynn Carter. He’d dialed their home phone in Plains, Georgia. He was doubly surprised when Mrs. Carter remembered his wife, Hazel. They’d all met only once, very briefly, two weeks earlier in a little Iowa town called Atlantic (which is half a continent away from the ocean but right on the shore of the East Nishnabotna River). And he was surprised once more when Mrs. Carter mentioned that Hazel said she had a brother in Michigan. Mrs. Carter asked for his name and address and later wrote a note asking the brother if he’d help when the Carter campaign got to Michigan.
Jimmy Carter was always fond of telling writers about how Rosalynn, who died Sunday at age 96 after being diagnosed with dementia, was such a quiet and shy – even “timid” – girl when they first dated in Plains. Indeed, when Carter first ran for governor, he famously felt the need to push his wife to campaign by talking with people.
But there certainly was nothing “timid” about Rosalynn Carter by the time I got to know the Carters, while covering the 1976 campaign and their White House years for Newsday, The Washington Post and while writing a book, “Running for President 1976.” She remained soft-spoken and reserved, but had become a confident quiet campaigner, known for…
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