Ruth Carter Stapleton
sister of Jimmy Carter; Christian evangelist
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".
The public source identifies “Ruth Carter Stapleton” as sister of Jimmy Carter; Christian evangelist. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ruth, Carter and Stapleton.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7382914. VIAF identifies the subject as 114041176. The Library of Congress control number is n79091894. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1929, 1983, 1926 and 1990.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ruth Carter Stapleton” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.