Rosalynn Carter, the formidable first lady who helped modernize and expand the role of a U.S. president’s wife as she sat in on White House Cabinet meetings, spoke freely, and pushed for mental health reform, has died.

Carter, who with her husband, Jimmy, remained steadfastly committed to public service after returning to private life, died Sunday at her home in Plains, Ga., the Carter Center said in statement. She was 96 and the nation’s oldest living former first lady.

The center announced that Carter was suffering from dementia in May 2023, three months after the former president entered hospice care at home in February.

The couple’s last public appearance together was in September when they rode through their beloved hometown of Plains during the annual Plains Peanut Festival.

“I can’t tell you how important she was,” the late Hamilton Jordan, President Carter’s former chief of staff, told People magazine in 2008. “People who really know the Carters say you