As the world continues to remember former first lady Rosalynn Carter, a Rochester woman who used to work at the Carter Center talks about how the Center will work to help Mrs. Carter’s legacy live on.

“[There is] a poignancy, sadness, but gratefulness that I was able to be with a woman who truly made a difference," Kelly Gagan said.

What You Need To Know

  • Rochester resident and former Carter Center employee remembers First Lady Rosalynn Carter

  • Kelly Gagan, now employed at Rochester Regional Health, used to work alongside President and Mrs. Carter as part of the Carter Center's fundraising efforts

  • Gagan traveled with the couple and recalls memories of Mrs. Carter describing her as compassionate and graceful

A staunch mental health advocate and humanitarian, Rosalynn Carter died on Sunday at 96.

It’s a sad time for many of those who knew her, including Rochester’s Kelly Gagan, who sometimes worked side by side with the Carters during her time at the Carter Center.

“I traveled with them quite a bit," she said. "We were on various local and national trips from a fundraising perspective and got to know them fairly well. They were genuine, they were warm, they were selfless.”

Gagan worked at the Carter Center from 1997 to 2000. She still works in the fundraising field at Rochester Regional Health.

“It’s a poignant time for many of us who worked there," Gagan said. "We were all calling and texting each other because we have such warm memories of the work that we did to support them and how glad we were to be a part of that history."

She worked with the former first couple on a specific campaign.

"We were fundraising for a permanent endowment for the Carter Center," Gagan said. "President and Mrs. Carter acknowledged that once they were gone, it would be more difficult to fundraise for the programs at the Carter Center, so they were very intent on building up the endowment.”

Through the endowment, the Carter's work will continue long after they are gone.

“It was always such a joy for those of us who worked there to watch President and Mrs. Carter interact," Gagan said. "They had a partnership that was so impactful and so wonderful to see. They were truly equal partners. They were, I know at the White House, but they were particularly after they left the White House, starting the Carter Center was the wonderful bookend to their political career, they did it together."

The Carters were married for 77 years.

“When I was there, they received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and they both received it which was very unique and very appropriate," said Gagan. 

Gagan describes the former first lady as one of grace and compassion.

"I think that there is a warmth to know that she was at her home in Plains with President Carter surrounded by her family, that gives us all a peace and a feeling that she was at a place that she loved," she said. "I think that gives us all a feeling of content."