Blink and you might have missed a touching moment at Jimmy Carter’s funeral.
As six days of tributes to the former president wrapped up in Plains, Georgia, on Thursday, Carter’s longtime personal pastor, Tony Lowden, recognized the important people who helped the Carters over the years.
This included leaders of Maranatha Baptist Church, Carter’s caretakers, members of the National Park Service and a woman named Mary Prince.
As Prince stood, the church erupted into applause and gave a standing ovation. Amy Carter ran down the aisle to embrace her and walked her to the front pew to sit with the Carter family.
In 1971, Prince became the nanny to 3-year-old Amy while her father was governor of Georgia. What made her employment unique was that Prince was currently serving a life sentence for murder.
In this image provided by the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, Amy Carter hangs from a tree as she speaks with nanny Mary Fitzpatrick on Feb. 23, 1977, on south lawn of the White House in Washington. (Bill Fitzpatrick/Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum via AP)
This was possible through the “trusty system,” a controversial program that allowed some state inmates to receive special privileges and work outside the prison. The program was regarded as a form of convict leasing and was abolished in the 1970s.
