Rosalynn Carter came to Utah to ski down a mountain and speak up about mental health

When Rosalynn Carter visited Utah in 2003, the then-75-year-old former first lady planned to do some skiing.

She also planned to talk about mental health.

When she and her husband, former President Jimmy Carter, came to the Beehive State in February that year to hold their “Winter Weekend” fundraiser for their nonprofit organization, The Salt Lake Tribune writer who covered their visit reported from Snowbird.

However, “minutes after dropping her 3-year-old grandson off at ski school,” the archived article read, she sat down with The Tribune to discuss mental health.

The outspoken advocate and humanitarian said she has seen the field of mental health evolve, with new medications and research, since she got involved in 1966.

One thing, she lamented, hadn’t changed: “the stigmas.”

Rosalynn Carter died Sunday at age 96 while in hospice care.

As for skiing, which she learned to do at age 59, the 2003 story stated, she said, “I’ll get out there. By the third day, when I have my confidence back, it will be time to go.”

The Carters were in Utah to raise money for The Carter Center, a nonprofit organization focused on preventing disease, war and oppression around the world and founded in 1982. When the couple visited in 2003, that was the first year the Carters brought the event to Utah.

A year later, the Carters again brought their “Winter Weekend” to Snowbird. In 2004, the two spent the weekend with more than 300 people to benefit the Carter Center. According to a Tribune article, the Carters listened to updates about the organization’s work on worldwide conflict resolution, human rights, health care and more.

The couple visited Utah again in 2010, during Sundance, to speak at an author series.