Watch Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood perform at Rosalynn Carter’s funeral
One of country music’s most famous couples, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, were close friends with one of our country’s most famous couples, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter.
So it was only fitting that, after the recent passing of Rosalynn Carter at the age of 96, Brooks and Yearwood would provide some of the music at her tribute service on Nov. 28. Yearwood sang the lyrics to John Lennon’s “Imagine,” while Brooks accompanied her on guitar.
The funeral was held at Atlanta’s Emory University at Glenn Memorial Church. Former President Jimmy Carter was there to see his friends pay tribute to his wife; he attended the service in a rare public appearance since entering hospice 10 months ago.
WSB-TV captured the moment and shared it on YouTube:
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Country music’s royal couple became friends with the Carters when they worked with them during Habitat for Humanity’s annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Week Project. The day after Rosalynn’s death on Nov. 19, Brooks held a press conference at his Friends In Low Places Bar & Grill in Nashville, where he reflected on that friendship.
He revealed that Yearwood and Rosalynn were inseparable, and that the former president referred to Yearwood as “his second-favorite Georgia peach.”
“Miss Yearwood called [Rosalynn] a ‘quiet warrior,'” Brooks said, “Today” reports. “If you ever got to hang around her, President Carter always steals the show, and then when it comes time for her to speak, she’ll walk to the mic. What she says is very quiet but yet very powerful … She taught us all that the lion doesn’t have to roar.”
Brooks became emotional while discussing Rosalynn’s death. “A light has gone out that shines on how we should treat each other,” he said. “But if we all pick that light up, maybe that light can grow instead of disappear.”