Rosalynn Carter, who as the first lady of the United States worked tirelessly for mental health reform and professionalized the role of the wife of the president, died on Sunday at the age of 96, the Carter Center reported, News.ro reported with reference to CNN.

Rosalynn Carter died peacefully with her family at her home in Plains, Georgia, the center said in a statement.

“Rosalynn has been my equal partner in everything I’ve accomplished,” said her husband, former President Jimmy Carter. “She gave me wise advice and encouragement when I needed it. While Rosalyn was in this world, I always knew that someone loved and supported me.”

The Carter Center announced Friday that the former first lady has begun receiving palliative care. In May, she was diagnosed with dementia. Her husband began receiving palliative care at home in February 2023 after a series of hospitalizations.

Jimmy Carter was decisively defeated by Ronald Reagan four years after his election. His one term in the White House included a rare peace deal between Israel and Egypt that remains in place to this day, but it was also marked by rampant inflation and a hostage crisis in Iran. All this time, Rosaline was close by and often whispered in his ear.

The Carters reimagined and revolutionized the post-presidency and worked together to promote peace and human rights on behalf of the Carter Center, an Atlanta-based non-governmental organization founded to “build peace, fight disease and create hope.”

After leaving the White House, the couple traveled to hot spots around the world, including Cuba, Sudan and North Korea, observing elections and working to eradicate forgotten tropical diseases. Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

“The Carter Center is a shared legacy. She was there digging cesspools right next to him,” said Carter family friend Jill Stuckey, a leader at Maranatha Baptist Church, where both Carters attended and where Jimmy Carter taught Sunday school.

Rosalynn Carter’s longest personal legacy will be her efforts to reduce the stigma of people with mental illness and her fight for parity and access to mental illness treatment. She also dedicated her time to the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers at her alma mater, Georgia Southwestern State University, to help families and professional caregivers living with disabilities and illnesses.

In 1999, then-President Bill Clinton awarded the Carters the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. He said the Carters “did more good for more people in more places than any other couple on Earth.”