Rosalynn Carter, the second-oldest U.S. first lady ever, turns 95 Thursday on a birthday that will be marked not just with cards and best wishes, but with butterflies.
The wife of former President Jimmy Carter, 97, has a fascination with butterflies dating back to childhood, when she was entranced by the colorful insects flitting around her mother’s flowers in Plains, Georgia, longtime friend and neighbor Annette Wise said.
That interest led to the formation of the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail, which was established in the southwest Georgia town after the former first lady grew concerned about the future of butterflies, which are crucial to the pollination of flowering plants.
“She read an article in 2013 about the decline in monarchs and decided she wanted to do something about it,” Wise said.
Wise said she helped Carter establish a garden featuring native milkweed, a prime habitat for monarch butterflies, at the home she shares with the former president, her husband of 76 years, but the public can’t visit it because of Secret Service security concerns. So Wise planted another garden nearby that could be open to visitors, and that helped lead to the butterfly trail, which includes 76 public and private gardens around rural Plains.
