Navy service, Sunday School teacher: 5 interesting facts about Jimmy Carter
Longest presidential marriage
In 1946, around the same time that he had graduated from the Naval Academy, Carter married Eleanor Rosalynn Smith, with the couple having four children and more than 20 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
The two also hold the current distinction of having the longest marriage of any presidential couple, having been together for around 77 years.
President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara previously held the record, having been married for 73 years and 102 days until Barbara died in 2018. H.W. Bush died later that same year.
“[The Carters] have been married for longer than more than half of all the U.S. presidents were alive,” reported The Washington Post back in 2019.
“Twenty-five presidents had shorter life spans; plus, two living presidents — Barack Obama and Bill Clinton — have yet to reach that mile marker. (George W. Bush was born the day before the Carters married.)”
