The Case for First Lady, Uppercased

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(Photo by Thom Milkovic for Unsplash)

I sat at my desk this midsummer evening and off in the distance the low rumbling of thunder registered as another storm rolled in off the central east coast of Florida. Barely into the writing process and I reached first for my printed version of The Associated Press Stylebook, a 2016 version, as I so often do. It’s always been at arm's reach since my first printed version of the stylebook around 1993. Even though I have the digital version open on a computer tab, out of curiosity I flipped to the physical copyright page and noticed when the first (modern) edition was published — August 1977. 

It had only been a few months earlier when Rosalynn Carter stood watching her husband, Jimmy Carter, be sworn in as the 39th president of the United States at his inauguration on Jan. 20 of that same year. Huh, kind of a coincidence, I thought.

What was not a coincidence was the manner in which Rosalynn Carter assumed her position as first lady. She served as f…