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A Remarkable Mother

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This book was a gift, which appropriately came from my mother. President Carter was a remarkable president, but even more remarkable was his mother, Miss Lillian. The reader learns very quickly, how this hard working, no- holds-barred woman was the way she was and how she won over everyone she met. Her friends included Walter Cronkite, Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, sports figures, heads of state, and the down-trodden. Miss Lillian saw people for who they were, not what they had. Although, her witty commentary could be viewed as sometimes embarrassing to the straight-laced person, she was beloved even more. This book is a fine tribute to one of America's greatest good will ambassadors.

Anyone who doesn't remember the Carter Presidency will meet in this book a truly extraordinary woman, as salty and outspoken as she was generous, good-hearted and commonsensical--perhaps the only President's mother in recent times (at least prior to the current occupant of the Oval Office) to make a noteworthy impression in public consciousness. For those who do remember her, Jimmy's fond (but not overly or needlessly sentimental) portrait will help clarify the origins of the qualities that were manifest on the surface. Rather than being a clinging or protective parent she was a "do-er," someone who taught by example. In many respects, she bears no small resemblance to the strong Southern black women with whom she had an affinity--a character with the integrity and resilience of Dilsey in Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury."

The entire Carter family--Miss Lillian, Ruth, and Billy--were utterly unique individuals, and little has been written about the personal grief that Jimmy must have endured upon the passing of his mother and both siblings, even as he continued to direct his attention toward humanitarian causes that would benefit a wider human family. Unfortunately, there is no Brother's or Sister's Day, but some of us hope the enviable energies of the former President do not fail him before he has had a chance to do at least equal justice by these two remaining members of a First Family that, however dissimilar in background and social status, attracted a level of interest not seen since the Kennedy era.

I read this wonderful book with great enjoyment. President Carter does a great job making this bio entertaining as well as inspiring. Lillian was not a saint but a very outspoken "live life to the fullest" woman.
I was impressed by her respectful treatment of African Americans and the great example she was to her son. She was a great help in meeting foreign dignitaries etc. A great read!

Jimmy Carter has penned an insightful and inspiring book that chronicles the amazing life of Miss Lillian Carter- Peace Corp volunteer at the age of 70, registered nurse, pecan grower, university housemother, early civil rights advocate, and enthusiastic Brooklyn Dodgers fan. "A Remarkable Mother" is an engaging, uplifting read that makes for a terrific Mother's Day gift regardless of the recipient's political persuasion.

President Jimmy Carter's tribute to his phenomenal mother "Miss Lillian" can be read in one sitting. He traces her ancestory, writes of her young life in South Georgia, her training and work as a nurse, her time in the Peace Corps, and her support or his presidency as an unofficial ambassador to many countries abroad. She reminded her famous son, however, that she usually only got sent to "represent our nation at funerals of distinguished foreign leaders."

Through the eyes of President Carter, we see a woman not afraid of hard work, a loving but firm parent-- though one who cut more slack than her husband Earl and who dished out lighter punishments to her four children than their father did-- and someone light years ahead of her contemporaries when it came to matters of race. Carter remembers that "my mother was the only white adult I ever knew who had a similarly [referring to his own early childhood] equal relationship with our [black] neighbors.

Miss Lillian loved soap operas, especially "All My Children," and family members knew that she neither answered the telephone nor went to her front door in Plains during the time that soap was on. She also liked a good shot of bourbon once a day, loved professional baseball and wrestling and was an avid reader her entire life. More importantly she instilled the joy of reading in each of her four very different children. President Carter retells the famous quotation of his brother Billy when he was accused of being eccentric: "I've got one sister who spends all her time on a motorcycle, another one who is a Holy-Roly preacher, a mother who is in the Peace Corps when she is seventy years old, and my brother thinks he's going to be President of the United States. Which one of our family do you think is normal?"

President Carter reminds us that his beloved mother was famous or infamous, depending on your point of view, for both her wit and her tendency to speak her mind. When he drove from Atlanta to Plains to tell her he was going to run for President, she responded, "President of what?" Then she opined that if he were elected President of the United States, that Plains might then get a decent restaurant. After President Carter's inauguration, after admonished by Press Secretary Jody Powell to not talk to the press, she told Powell to "go to hell. I'll talk to whom I please." She was immediately asked by a reporter if she was proud of her son. "She quipped: "Which one?" Then there is the famous Miss Lillian quote heard around the world and my favorite. During an interview with a reporter from the WASHINGTON POST, the reporter quizzed her on her son's comment that he had never told a lie and would never lie to the American public. Miss Lillian responded that perhaps Jimmy had told a "little white lie" now and then. The over-zealous reporter thought she smelled blood and responded, "Aha! Aha? And what do you mean by a 'little white lie'?" Miss Lillian responded: " Well do you remember a few minutes ago when I met you at the door and said that you look very nice and that I was glad to see you?" Now that's a woman you can tip your hat to!

Perhaps the most poignant passages in this tribute are those in which Mr. Carter reflects on his mother's time in India. She was appalled at both the severe caste system and concomitant poverty. When her family sent her cheese and peanut butter and other small items, she routinely gave them all away. She wrote home of a heartbreaking experience when she was told by the doctor she worked for to ignore a woman dying of leprosy: "Miz Lilly, don't try to change us in the short time you'll be here. Whatever you do, don't feed her. The sooner she starves to death, the better off she'll be She has infectious leprosy and must not be touched." Finally on her seventieth birthday, just before returning home, Miss Lillian wrote these most moving and beautiful words: "I didn't dream that in this remote corner of the world, so far away from the people and material things that I had always considered so necessary, I would discover what Life is really all about, sharing youself with others---and accepting their love for you is the most precious gift of all." Surely a mother who spoke such words would have been proud of what President Carter said, when asked by a reporter, as I recall, on his eightieth birthday, what he would most like to be remembered for. He responded that during his presidency, that no American soldier died in a war.

Remarkable mother, remarkable son.

Bessie Lillian Gordy was born in rural Georgia on August 15, 1898, the fourth in a family of nine children. Her father was a government revenue officer and later a postmaster. She grew up in a busy, noisy household and never forgot her beginnings.

Lillian entered nursing school in 1920 at Wise Sanitarium in Plains, Georgia. She met her future husband Earl on a double date but didn't like him very much at first. Perhaps opposites really do attract because Lillian and Earl married right after she completed her studies.

The Carters raised four children: Jimmy, Gloria, Ruth and Billy. Jimmy was the outdoors type, Gloria was the independent one who challenged their strict father, Ruth was a sickly child, and Billy was an avid reader and a bit of a scamp. Their mom and dad had different parenting styles; Lillian was less strict than Earl, the family disciplinarian, but she did leave lists of chores for the kids to do when she was absent.

Lillian worked first in a hospital and then later in people's homes. When she was on 20-hour duty, neighbors looked after her children. She gave capable, compassionate care to all regardless of race or ability to pay. In fact, she was usually paid in crops at harvest time. She owned all the pecan trees on their farm, and every November she took time off from her nursing duties to supervise the pecan harvest. She was a shrewd businesswoman who always received top dollar for her pecans.

During the Depression many folks who were passing through the area looking for work and better times visited the Carters, who always greeted them with a meal and a kind word. Lillian wondered why she had so many of these unexpected visitors while the neighbors had none. One guest explained that someone had marked the Carters' mailbox as being a welcome place to stop.

Earl died of pancreatic cancer in 1953, and Jimmy, much against his wife's wishes, left a promising naval career to return home to run the family business in partnership with his mother. With her family grown and being widowed, Lillian needed to keep busy and feel useful again. Her role as housemother for Kappa Alpha fraternity at Auburn University fulfilled that need for eight years. She often drove her "boys" around in her Cadillac.

Ruth became an author and evangelist. Gloria was an accountant, and she and her husband were avid motorcyclists. Billy was an astute businessman and had a reputation for being a free spirit, especially when he drank. Sadly, all three died of cancer. Time and again Lillian soldiered on after each of her devastating losses.

Lillian had a keen mind coupled with vitality and skills that still begged to be utilized. At age 68 she stepped out boldly when she joined the Peace Corps. She spent two years nursing in India, immersed in a very different culture from what she was used to. For someone who believed in equality for all, she found the caste system objectionable. Though she suffered many hardships and worked very long hours during that time, she loved the Indian people and felt her efforts had been well spent.

Lillian is undoubtedly best remembered as a refreshingly frank, down-to-earth senior citizen who just happened to be the mother of the President of the United States. She loved to appear on talk shows and often upstaged Johnny Carson. During and after her son's presidency, she became somewhat of a goodwill ambassador who traveled the world and was a highly sought-after speaker. Often she talked about service in the Peace Corps or disregarding age to lead a full and adventurous life. She spoke off the cuff and ignored notes and suggestions made by others. No one was ever certain just what she might say. Not only was she a remarkable mother, Miss Lillian was a remarkable person.

--- Reviewed by Carole Turner

Similar to "An Hour before Daylight," this book shares stories of life in rural south Georgia during the 20's, 30's and 40's. The book shares a great glimpse into the lives of the former president's ancestors. Anyone who remembers life with telephone party lines, chamber pots, and polio scares will reminisce and those who are younger should read this to learn what life was like for his/her grandparents.
The reader also gets a picture of an extraordinarily confident woman and what she can accomplish even in what was then a no-where town in the grand scheme of American geography. "A Remarkable Mother" is a quick and easy but rewarding read.

Jimmy Carter is one of the few widely known political figures whose books sell well, because he writes clearly and entertainingly in his own voice. His latest effort, an unvarnished portrayal of his loyal, tough-minded mother, is no exception.

Readers may be a little shocked when he writes of how primitive the Carter family's life was, in 1930s Georgia, which he also described in his memoir, "An Hour Before Daylight." The southern climate, replete with insects, snakes, "wharf rats", and stultifying heat, made his mother Lillian's nursing skills valuable to the people she served. White and black people alike loved her for the care she gave them as she made no distinctions, holding an unusually enlightened attitude for that place and time.

Bright, energetic, practical, outspoken, physically and emotionally strong----as well as stubborn and demanding--that is the "Miz Lillian" her son presents to us in this plainly written, loving tribute to his mother.

I highly encourage all to read this book. If nothing else, to gain more insight into some remarakble people, and to gain more love, compassion, and sensitivity towards this very special person in many of our lives, our mother.One Man's Love Story - A Near-Death Experience

It's clear from the very opening of "A Remarkable Mother" how deeply Jimmy Carter loves his mother, and the book comes across as a very warm, affectionate, and loving tribute that avoids becoming a hagiography of Miss Lillian. By turns Miss Lillian is tough, outspoken, loving, and complex; quite different from the stereotype of women of her era. What emerges is how great an influence Miss Lillian was on shaping all of her children's character, and with Jimmy especially his sense of social justice and political ambition. What is most interesting is Carter's style of prose. It's so very conversational it sounds as though he's sitting in the room with you, relaying stories from the heart and he pulls in conversations with friends and family about their remembrances of Miss Lillian. Carter touches on virtually every facet of Lillian Carter's life: her courtship with her husband Jimmy Sr., her marriage, her many careers, her widowhood, and in the process Jimmy Carter's political rise, fall, and rehabilitation. And Jimmy doesn't sugarcoat anything about his mother. While it is a reverential book it is warts-and-all, touching on her outspokenness that sometimes got her and son Jimmy into some hot water or made her the butt of jokes. In the end it was Lillian's own humility and outspokenness that kept Jimmy honest and humble.

What emerges is a portrait of how extraordinary Lillian Carter was for her age. At a time when most married women were homemakers, Lillian was working as a nurse and health care provider, and she explains why without pulling any punches. And much of her work was often volunteer work, as well as long hours, sometimes as much as 20 hours a day, evidence of a selflessness of character that would be imprinted on her son Jimmy. Her strong principled stand against segregation in the time of Jim Crow marked her as being quite different from most women in South Georgia of the era; proof she was no ordinary woman. In some ways Lillian Carter is almost akin to an American version of Mother Teresa; albeit one who drank bourbon and loved to watch wrestling on television. It is her boundless intelligence, wit and humor, wisdom, and charm that emerge, along with her passion for public service and selflessness. "A Remarkable Mother" is equal parts love and devotion mixed with inspiration and a sense that you too can aspire to do more.