Under any other circumstances, the sight would have been startling. However, it was only fitting that, in her final moments, Rosalynn Carter—the trailblazing woman who made the first lady’s position a career—performed the one thing no one else has been able to accomplish this year: entice Melania Trump to leave Mar-a-Lago and return to the spotlight. Furthermore, she arranged for Mrs. Trump to be seated directly next to Michelle Obama.

Since leaving the White House in January 2021, Mrs. Trump has avoided almost all significant events, with the rare exception of her husband’s multiple court appearances (he announced in November 2022 that he was running for president again).

However, on Tuesday, she attended Mrs. Carter’s memorial service at the Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church in Atlanta, along with Jill Biden, the current first lady, and the three other living former first ladies, Mrs. Obama, Mrs. Clinton, and Mrs. Bush.

Journalist Judy Woodruff said, “Rosalynn Carter would be so pleased she brought all of you together on this day.”

All of the current first ladies were together for the first time since George H.W. Bush’s funeral in 2018. (Mrs. Trump did not go to the inauguration of President Biden.) With the Bidens seated between the Clinton and Carter families, they were tactfully seated next to each other in the order of administration. Together, they provided an incredible glimpse into what Mrs. Carter’s grandson, Jason Carter, described as a “remarkable sisterhood.”

Each of them represented, in a different way, Mrs. Carter’s instruction to make the work their own, which she had previously given to Mrs. Obama. They were both (mostly) black, but they differed slightly in the details.

For instance, Mrs. Clinton was wearing her signature pantsuit, which she wore as her go-to outfit when she left the White House and paved the way for other first ladies to follow in her footsteps as a senator, presidential nominee, and secretary of state. She also had pearl earrings and a long, collarless jacket on.

Here stood Mrs. Obama, dressed in an all-black turtleneck, blazer, and pants that were a mash-up of various designers’ pieces (with Versace providing the jacket, among others). Pulling her hair back into a low ponytail and leaving it natural, she gave a nod to the sartorial freedom she discovered after escaping the Washington fishbowl and figuring out the nuances of being a member of the country’s first Black first family, which included, as she once revealed to Ellen DeGeneres, straightening her hair to make it seem more comforting to the white electorate.

Mrs. Bush was there, decked out in a traditional black sheath dress and a double strand of pearls. Here stood Mrs. Biden, dressed in a basic black skirt suit, accessorizing with a pair of Dior slingback pumps secured with dressmaker tape.