SAN DIEGO — Rosalynn Carter passed away Sunday at the age of 96 just days after joining her husband, former President Jimmy Carter, in hospice care.
San Diego artisan and woodworker, Russ Filbeck, met the former President and First Lady 20 years ago.
“She was very much the Georgia Peach or Southern Belle, that’s for sure. She really had an elegant way about her,” Filbeck said.
Filbeck reached out to the former President through The Carter Center because he was writing a book about woodworking. He gave Carter a rocking chair and his wife reminded him, to make something for Rosalynn too.
“I made her shaker boxes and so when I delivered his rocking chair and her shaker boxes, they were just thrilled," Filbeck said.
Over the years, the Carters visited Filbeck and would come to his shop in his Mira Mesa garage because the former President made chairs like Filbeck did and Rosalynn helped.
“She would help weave the seats and help drag the logs into the yard. I laughed and thought, that doesn't seem right for the 1st lady dragging logs around. But that’s how they’ve always been. They do everything together," Filbeck said.
Filbeck still has the shaker boxes the former President and First Lady both made. Each has their signature still on the inside of the lids.
“You can see this knot. To me, this resembled the eye of a hurricane and of course, their life in political office was always a storm and so on the inside of her box I laser engraved ‘Weathering the eye of the storm with grace and beauty’," he said.
When Mrs. Carter wrote the book “Within Our Reach” about mental health, Filbeck didn’t know why but she sent the retired Navy submariner a copy.
“When I read it, it was like reading my life's story about my problems when I was young. And it helped me so much. To this day I've been grateful for her because of what that did for me. What was really nice, I was able to tell her how much she meant to me because of that," he said.
Every year, Filbeck and his wife go to Georgia for The Carter Center fundraising auction where Filbeck donates his work.
Two years ago they went to the Carter’s 75th wedding anniversary party. And when Mrs. Carter took the Filbecks on a tour of their private home, he saw the rocker he had given the former President and the matching box he gave Rosalynn all those years ago.
“In their bedroom, on a cedar chest that he(Jimmy) made for her is where her set of shaker boxes resided,” Filbeck said.
Filbeck says he got the call this weekend that Rosalynn had passed away.
“Just sad,” he says, “Because I won’t get to see her now. And we always enjoyed getting to see her.”
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