Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks honored Rosalynn Carter with a performance of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Imagine” at a memorial service for the former first lady on Tuesday.
The performance began with just Yearwood and Brooks together, the former singing lead, and the latter plucking an acoustic guitar and providing a bit of backing vocals. By the end of the performance, some of the other musicians had delicately joined in, offering choral vocals and soft piano.
Yearwood and Brooks enjoyed a close relationship with Carter and her husband, former president Jimmy Carter, through their shared involvement with Habitat for Humanity. The Carters were longtime champions of the cause, while Yearwood and Brooks became involved with the organization following the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.
The two couples frequently worked alongside each other on building projects, and this year — with the Carters in hospice care — Yearwood and Brooks officially took over as hosts of Habitat for Humanity’s annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Week Project.
In an interview with CNN back in October, Brooks said, “We are here to honor their legacy and continue the work that they are continuing to do; just because they have retired from this project and are at home does not mean that they are not here, so we feel very lucky and very fortunate to still be a part of what they stand for.”
Yearwood added: “And I think what they stand for is truly loving your neighbor. They are just great examples of how to be, and they fit Habitat so well because Habitat is all about helping your neighbor, about lifting each other up.”
Rosalynn Carter died, Nov. 19, at her home in Plains, Georgia, at the age of 96. In May, it was announced that Rosalynn had been diagnosed with dementia, about three months after Jimmy, then 98, decided to forgo “additional medical intervention” and enter hospice care. The former president, now 99, made a rare appearance at his wife’s service in Atlanta on Tuesday, which was attended by all the former first ladies, along with President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden.