page_title: Lillian Gordy Carter
section_title: Presidential mother
hierarchical_section_title: Lillian Gordy Carter / Peace Corps volunteer / Presidential mother
caption_attribution_description: Jimmy Carter and his mother Miss Lillian Carter
context_page_description: Bessie Lillian Gordy Carter was the mother of the thirty-ninth president of the United States Jimmy Carter. She was also known for her contributions to nursing in her home state of Georgia and as a Peace Corps volunteer in India as well as writing two books during the Carter presidency.
context_section_description: When Jimmy Carter decided to run for president, his mother was one of the first people he told. He was initially regarded as a dark horse candidate for the Democratic Party nomination.
  Lillian Carter was well known as "Miss Lillian" and she published two books during his presidency: Miss Lillian and Friends and Away from Home: Letters to my Family, both published in 1977. The latter book was a collection of letters to her family sent when she was in India for the Peace Corps.
  "Miss Lillian" was a favorite of the press for her Southern charm and down-to-earth manner. For reporters and interrogators alike, she always had a warm, sassy response for every question. One biographer recalls a story about an encounter between Carter and a reporter from New York who flew to Plains to meet her during her son's 1976 campaign to become the U.S. president:
  Miss Lillian greeted her, and said "Welcome to Plains! It's so nice to see you! Would you like some lemonade? How was your journey? Your dress is beautiful"; pouring out the Southern hospitality. And the reporter jumped right in on Miss Lillian and said "Now Miss Lillian, your son's running for president and said he'll never tell a lie now, as a mother, are you telling me he's never told a lie?" And she goes "oh, Jimmy tells white lies all the time!" the reporter said "Tell me what you mean: what is a 'white lie'?" And Miss Lillian said "Remember when I said 'Welcome to Plains and how good it is to see you'. That's a white lie."
  In 1977, Lillian Carter appeared in a cameo as herself in the made-for-TV movie Lucy Calls the President starring Lucille Ball.
  When son Billy's beer business had its ribbon-cutting ceremony, a friend questioned Carter on whether or not she would attend. She remarked: "I attended Jimmy's inauguration didn't I?"
  Together with vice-president Walter Mondale, Lilian Carter was head of the U.S. delegation to the funeral of Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito.
caption: With Jimmy Carter, 1977
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