The stage production of “Miss Lillian – A Life of Some Significance” makes a stop in Grand Rapids at the Ives Studio Theater in Myles Reif Performing Arts Center on Thursday, February 6th. Lillian Carter, who was President Jimmy Carter’s mother, is remembered through the show as a woman who refused to bow to the attitudes of her Southern surroundings.

The play is a one-person production staring Carol Swarbrick as Lillian Carter, who was a social activist, humanitarian, nurse, peanut farmer, and nurturer. She was a free-thinker who enjoyed professional wrestling and who nurtured the best human qualities in all with whom she interacted. She celebrated her 70th birthday in India while serving in the Peace Corps. She loved to go fishing and disliked cooking, which in those times were unfathomable for a wife or mother. The show depicts Carter as an original, someone who walked to the beat of her own drum, doing things her own way.

Swarbrick has been acting for more than 50 years, performing around the world on stages and in movies. It was her agent that suggested the part and President Jimmy Carter has invited Swarbrick to visit with his family many different times telling her more than a handful of stories about Miss Lillian.

By — Chantelle Calhoun