Judy Woodruff:
It was the first Sunday in July of 1946. World War II had been over for months, and the victorious United States was emerging as a global superpower.
On that day, 140 miles south of Atlanta, in the small, quiet town of Plains, Georgia, a 21-year-old recent Naval Academy graduate named James Earl Carter Jr. and his 18-year-old fiancee, Eleanor Rosalynn Smith, exchanged wedding vows. They walked down the aisle of a Methodist church and into a partnership that would take them to the height of American power and all over the world.
Former first lady Rosalynn Carter is now 93, and former President Jimmy Carter is 96, making him the longest-living president in American history.
This Wednesday, July 7, marks their 75th wedding anniversary, another record among U.S. presidents. And it was for that occasion that I spoke with them last week in Plains, where they still live, about their life together and a few other things.
President Carter, Mrs. Carter, it is so wonderful to see both of you. Thank you for talking with us.
Seventy-five years of marriage, that is remarkable. Congratulations.
Mrs. Carter, what is the secret to this partnership?
