Ruth Carter Stapleton

Ruth Carter Stapleton (née Carter; August 7, 1929 – September 26, 1983) was an American Christian evangelist. She was the younger sister of United States President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter’s best friend.

Early life and family Ruth Carter Stapleton was born on August 7, 1929, in Plains, Georgia, the third of the four children in the family of James Earl Carter, Sr. and Lillian Gordy Carter.

Besides the former president, Stapleton had an older sister, Gloria (1926–1990), and a younger brother, Billy (1937–1988). All three of them died of pancreatic cancer, as did their father.

Education, career, and family Stapleton attended Georgia State College for Women, earned her bachelor's in English from Methodist University, and her master's in psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Stapleton married Robert Thome Stapleton (1925–2014), a veterinarian, in 1948 and they had four children: Gloria Lynn (born May 31, 1950), Sydney Scott (December 23, 1951 – December 13, 2019), Patricia Gordy (born May 29, 1954) and Robert Michael (born November 5, 1958). Stapleton suffered from chronic depression, and was involved in a car accident that nearly killed her during the time immediately following her children's births. She said she was later cured of depression at a "Christ-centered camp". One month after her death, her mother died of breast cancer, aged 85.