PLAINS, Ga. — Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter could not remember their first meeting. She was a newborn. He wasn’t long out of diapers himself, a would-be U.S. president peering down at the future first lady his mother had delivered a few days earlier.

       What flourished in the near-century to follow was a partnership that won the Georgia governor’s office, the White House and then propelled the Carters through four decades as global humanitarians. Undergirding that path was a small-town love story that made them more than a power couple: They were life mates and best friends.

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       Rosalynn Carter died Nov. 19 at the age of 96. The former president, now 99, was with her when at their home in Plains, where they lived all their lives, with the exceptions of his college and Navy years, one gubernatorial term and their White House years from 1977-81.