Mary Prince is the wrongfully convicted felon who stumbled across the job of a lifetime: former President Jimmy Carter’s family’s nanny.
The story of how Prince got the job is incredible, according to WSB-TV. She traveled to the governor’s mansion for an interview when Carter was Georgia’s governor as a part of her conviction rehabilitation. Prince admitted that with her history, she was nervous. “All my life, I had wanted to meet a governor or a president,” she said. “But I was nervous, too. I wondered how the Carter family would take to me.”
Shortly after, Carter’s late wife, Rosalynn, hired her to look after Amy Carter.
The book, A Story of Love and Rehabilitation: the Ex-Con in the White House, by Clare Crawford breaks down how Prince landed behind bars. In 1970, Prince was out with her cousin, Aniemaude, at a bar when they argued
with a woman. “I went outside and heard a shot. Aniemaude and this woman were fighting over Aniemaude’s gun,” Prince recalled. “I didn’t know anything about guns, but I tried to take it away, and it went off. We didn’t know it had hit anyone.”The woman involved in the scuffle claimed Prince grabbed the gun and deliberately fired it, killing her boyfriend. She was later sentenced to life in prison after her lawyer,
whom she met on day one of her trial, advised her to plead guilty. According to the book, Prince was under the impression that she was pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter, “but it turned out to be murder.”Prince’s presence wasn’t welcomed by White House staff and even raised some eyebrows from the public. However, that didn’t stop the Carters from working with her. After Carter’s first term, Prince moved to a house close to the former first couple’s home in Plains, Georgia, and continues to babysit for the Carters.
President Carter dedicated his 2004 book, Sharing Good Times, to “Mary Prince, whom we love and cherish.”
After her case was reexamined, Prince was finally pardoned.