"During her lifetime, the things that she did that were not seen. 1992 was the 200th anniversary of the White House, and an organization called Very Special Arts did something nationwide that year. Very Special Arts uses arts of all kinds to work with special needs kids. It's a wonderful organization. They're wonderful kids.

That year they were having these kids draw pictures of the White House, and they were going to send them the pictures from each state. They were sent to Washington. Barbara Bush, who was first lady at the time, was going to have them displayed in the White House. Well, we agreed at the [Carter] library to display the Georgia drawings there during a month when we had no special exhibit, traveling exhibits.

I sent a note over to Mrs. Carter telling her about this and asking if she would do something, you know, and I got a very pro forma answer back. We're sorry. Mrs. Carter has a full schedule. You know, my fault. I should have gone over individually and said something. But by happenstance, about a week later, Barbara Bush was in Atlanta and Mrs. Carter was going to show her the [Carter] museum. And I was told to be down there in case they got any questions. So, we make the tour of the museum, and I'm just kind of following along. When they got to the end, Barbara Bush turns and says, "Rosalynn, I'm working with this great organization called Very Special Arts, and if there's anything you could do I would really appreciate it.".

Mrs. Carter said, "Oh, well, I'd love to." So, wise ass me . . . I said, as a matter of fact, Mrs. Carter . . .  and she said "Oh, yes, I'd love to.".  So we made arrangements for her to come over at 10 o'clock one morning and snip a ribbon so you could go through the exhibit. And, it was a very busy morning for her.  She only had 15 minutes, so I'm trying to bring her back to the exhibit quickly.

Very Special Arts had arranged to have a bunch of very special artists there demonstrating for these kids. We were going to put them out on the back of the museum, on the grounds, sort of a county fair thing, to walk around. And of course, we've now grown beyond the five kids we were going to have, and now we've got 15 and their mothers, which are worse than the kids [chuckle]. That morning, it poured rain. I mean, a deluge like you wouldn't believe. And at eight o'clock, Mrs. Carter called me and said, "What are you going to do with all those kids?" and I said, "Well, we're moving them inside. I'm going to be doing finger painting on the floor of the museum with them."  Then she said, "I'll be over and help."

When the kids started their artwork, Mrs. Carter was there. And Mrs. Carter was there with those kids until Noon, each kid got a picture taken with Mrs. Carter in front of the painting they had done. She sent individual letters to each one of those kids, each one of their parents.

Her scheduler didn't talk to me for a couple of months after the appearance. But the only people that saw that were those 15 kids and their parents. And that got her nothing except the fact that those kids were there and something had to be done with them. And, that’s just who she was."