Many Americans remember Amy Carter as a 9-year-old child who grew up partly in the White House. Today, Amy Lynn Carter is 57 years old. She married in 1996, according to The Associated Press, and is the mother of adult son Hugo James Wentzel.
Her mother, former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, died at age 96 on November 19, 2023, according to the Carter Center. Her father, former President Jimmy Carter, died at age 100 on December 29, 2024, and Amy was photographed at a ceremony on January 7 as her father’s casket lay in state.
According to ABC News, Amy Carter was 9 when her father was inaugurated, the youngest child to live in the White House since the children of President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jackie Kennedy.
Today, online records show Amy Carter lives in Atlanta, Georgia in a four-bedroom home worth more than $800,000, according to Zillow. (Heavy is not linking to the Zillow page to preserve Amy Carter’s privacy.) While she has worked as a book illustrator and helped to observe elections for the Carter Center over the years, today Amy Carter lives a largely private life.
Where is President Jimmy Carter’s daughter Amy Carter now? Here’s what you need to know:
Amy Carter Married James Wentzel, a Computer Consultant She Met in a Bookstore, in 1996
According to an Associated Press article in 1996, Amy Carter, then 28, married computer consultant James Wentzel “in a homespun ceremony Sunday on the bank of a pond where her late grandmother, Lillian, used to fish.”
According to the AP, Wentzel, then 27, who is from Herndon, Virginia, worked as a computer consultant for the University of New Orleans while studying for a master’s degree at Tulane University. The AP reported that Carter met Wentzel while working “in an Atlanta bookstore managed by Wentzel.”
“We are all happy. The bride and groom are now husband and wife,” Jimmy Carter said, according to AP. According to the story, Wentzel’s father, Jim, is a retired Mobil Oil company executive. Public records show James Wentzel resides in Atlanta.
Amy Carter Is a Mother & Book Illustrator
Amy Carter and her husband have one son, according to ABC News.
According to the Christian Science Monitor, Carter, in 2000, was living a “quiet life in Atlanta” with James Wentzel and their son, Hugo James Wentzel, then 7 months old.
According to public records, as of February 2023, Hugo James Wentzel was 23 and lived in Atlanta, Georgia. Hugo Wentzel was photographed as a child when he accompanied Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter to a ribbon cutting for the Carter Presidential Library and Museum, according to Boston.com.
Amy Carter illustrated a children’s book, “The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer” in 1995. The book was authored by Jimmy Carter and based on a fairy tale the former President made up for Amy when she was a child, according to Amazon.com.
Amy Carter Was Once Arrested During a Protest Against United States Policies on South Africa During the Apartheid Era
After leaving the White House, Carter became involved in activism. According to Christian Science Monitor, Amy Carter attended Brown University and was arrested “during student protests against United States policies in South Africa (then under apartheid) and Central America. The charges against her were later dropped.”
She was also acquitted of charges stemming from a protest “against CIA recruiting at the University of Massachusetts,” according to a 1987 Associated Press article.
The Monitor reported that Carter pursued a “master’s degree in art history at Tulane University in New Orleans,” and was a board member at the Carter Center, which was established by her father. She is not currently listed on the Board of Trustees on the Center’s website.
In 2006, Amy Carter participated in the Carter Center’s efforts to monitor elections in Gaza and the West Bank, according to the Carter Center.