Ruth Carter Stapleton

Ruth Carter Stapleton (August 7, 1929 – September 26, 1983) was a sister of Jimmy Carter and a Christian evangelist.

Early life and family

Ruth Carter was born 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, along with their parents.

Education, career, and family

Stapleton earned her bachelor's degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Stapleton married Robert Thome Stapleton (1924–2014), a veterinarian, in 1948 and 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 wreck which nearly cost her life during the time immediately following the birth of her children.

In 1977, she became friends with pornographer Larry Flynt and managed to briefly convert him to Christianity. She was portrayed during this portion of Flynt's life by Donna Hanover in the film The People vs. Larry Flynt.

Stapleton was also known for her involvement in the healing ministry, especially in healing of memories. Her books The Gift of Inner Healing, The Experience of Inner Healing, and In His Footsteps: The Healing Ministry of Jesus, Then and Now, illustrate her beliefs on inner healing, which involved healing of memories in which a person would go over their memories and bring Jesus into the memory to help them forgive or be comforted as required by Jesus.

She died of pancreatic cancer in 1983, aged 54 just a month before her mother's death.