Billy Carter

William Alton Carter (March 29, 1937 – September 25, 1988)[2] was an American farmer, businessman, brewer, and politician. The younger brother of U.S. President Jimmy Carter, he promoted Billy Beer and Peanut Lolita; and he was a candidate for mayor of Plains, Georgia.

This article is about the farmer, businessman and politician. For the retired ice hockey forward, see Billy Carter (ice hockey). For the journalist, see Bill Carter.

Billy Carter
Born
William Alton Carter

(1937-03-29)March 29, 1937
Plains, Georgia, U.S.
DiedSeptember 25, 1988(1988-09-25) (aged 51)
Plains, Georgia, U.S.
Alma materEmory University
Occupation(s)Farmer, businessman, politician
Spouse
Sybil Spires
​
(m. 1955)​
[1]
Children6
Parents
Relatives

Early life

William Alton Carter was the fourth and youngest child of Lillian and James Earl Carter.[3] Billy Carter attended Emory University,[4] served in the United States Marine Corps, and later worked in the Carter family's peanut business.[5]

1970s and later

In 1970 Billy Carter was managing partner and 15% owner of the Carter family's peanut business.[3] By 1976 Billy had increased revenues to $5-million per year.[3]

In 1972 Billy Carter purchased a gas and service station in Plains. He owned and operated it for most of the decade.[6] At its peak he sold 2,000 cases of beer a month and more than 40,000 gallons of gas.[5] In 2009, the station became the Billy Carter Service Station Museum,[7] via the University of Georgia.[5]

Carter ran for mayor of Plains in 1976 but lost the election, 97 to 71 votes, to A.L. Blanton,[8] an Albany airport[9] air traffic controller.[10]

In the 1970s Billy Carter was the official spokesperson for Peanut Lolita liqueur while his brother, Jimmy Carter, held presidential office.[11]

In 1977, although a Pabst Blue Ribbon drinker,[5] he endorsed Billy Beer, introduced by the Falls City Brewing Company, who wished to capitalize upon his colorful image as a beer-drinking Southern good ol' boy[12] that developed in the press when his brother ran for president. Billy Carter's name was occasionally used as a gag answer for a Washington, D.C. trouble-maker on 1970s episodes of Match Game. He was known for his outlandish public behavior;[13] he once urinated on an airport runway in full view of the press and dignitaries.[14]

By 1979 he drank half a gallon of vodka and whiskey a day.[15] In February 1979 Carter was admitted to seven weeks of rehabilitation at the Long Beach, California Navy Hospital alcohol treatment facility where Betty Ford went for nearly four weeks.[16][17] He later became sober and reportedly extended support to other addicts in their own recovery.[15]

Relationship with Libya

In late 1978 and early 1979, Billy Carter visited Libya three times with a contingent from Georgia. He eventually registered as a foreign agent of the Libyan government and received a $220,000 loan of which, The New York Times speculated,[18] only $1,000 was repaid.[19] However, Edwin P. Wilson claimed he had seen a telegram showing that Libya paid Billy Carter $2 million.[20] This led to a Senate hearing on alleged influence peddling which the press named Billygate.[21] A Senate sub-committee was called To Investigate Activities of Individuals Representing Interests of Foreign Governments (Billy Carter—Libya Investigation).[22]

"I am deeply concerned that Billy has received funds from Libya and that he may be under obligation to Libya. These facts will govern my relationship with Billy as long as I am president. Billy has had no influence on U.S. policy or actions concerning Libya in the past, and he will have no influence in the future."

— Jimmy Carter, August 4, 1980[23]

Home sales

In 1981 he was forced to sell his Plains properties to pay taxes and debts and moved to Haleyville, Alabama selling for Tidwell Industries.[24] In 1985 he became vice president of Scott Housing Systems.[24]

After Billy died his wife Sybil opened a cafe.[25][12]

Death

Carter was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the fall of 1987 and received unsuccessful treatments for the disease.[26] He died in Plains the following year at age 51,[27] five years after the death of his sister, Ruth Carter Stapleton, who also died of pancreatic cancer at age 54.[18] Their father, James Earl Carter Sr., also died of the disease at the age of 58.

In 1999 Carter's son William "Buddy" Carter IV published a biography of his father: Billy Carter: A Journey Through the Shadows (ISBN 1-56352-553-4).

Further reading

See also

References
  2. "Billy Carter". Biography.com. Archived from the original on January 8, 2019. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
  3. Treadwell, David (September 26, 1988). "Billy Carter Is Dead of Cancer at 51 : Ex-President's Brother Capitalized on Country-Boy Image". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  4. Pearson, Richard (September 26, 1988). "BILLY CARTER, EX-PRESIDENT'S BROTHER, DIES OF CANCER". Washington Post. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  5. Soper, Susan (September 25, 2013). "Billy Carter: Beer Drinker, Book Lover". Legacy.com. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  6. Billy Carter's Station
  8. Ayres, B. Drummond Jr (December 7, 1976). "Billy Carter Loses". The New York Times. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  9. "Welcome". Southwest Georgia Regional Airport. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  10. Ayres, Drummond (December 7, 1976). "Billy Carter Loses". The New York Times. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
  11. Watson, Robert P. (2012). Life in the White House: A Social History of the First Family and the President's House. Albany, New York: SUNY Press. p. 119. ISBN 978-0791485071. Retrieved April 2, 2017.
  12. "Sybil, good ole boy..." The Tennessean. Nashville, Tennessee. June 26, 1977. p. 65. Retrieved February 23, 2023 – via newspapers.com.
  14. "Billy Carter Curbs Tongue", Spokane Daily Chronicle, January 15, 1979
  15. McLELLAN, DENNIS (January 27, 1990). "O.C. Writer Helps Tell Billy Carter Odyssey". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  16. Bennett, Tom. "Billy Carter Dies of Pancreatic Cancer". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  17. "Betty Ford leaving Long Beach Naval Hospital, Calif". calisphere.org. May 6, 1978. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  18. Hershey, Robert D. Jr (September 26, 1988). "Billy Carter Dies of Cancer at 51; Troubled Brother of a President". The New York Times. Retrieved February 23, 2023. Billy Carter, the irrepressible gas station proprietor and farmer who vaulted to national celebrity in his brother Jimmy's successful campaign for President in 1976, died of cancer of the pancreas yesterday at his home in Plains, Georgia. He was 51 years old.
  19. "Billy Carter Role in Iran Hostage Crisis Disclosed". The Los Angeles Times. July 23, 1980. p. 1. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  20. Joseph J. Trento, Prelude to Terror: Edwin P. Wilson and the Legacy of America's Private Intelligence Network (Carroll and Graf, 2005), p. 162.
  21. Sabato, Larry (July 21, 1998). "Billygate – 1980". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 28, 2011.
  23. Trento, Prelude to Terror, p. 164. Trento asserts that Libya's involvement with Billy Carter was instigated by Israeli intelligence in order "to compromise the president", who had ended Israel's "special status inside the CIA". Trento, 160, 157.
  24. "Billy Carter". Britannica. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  25. "Jimmy Carter". booknotes.org. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  26. "Billy Carter Has Surgery". The New York Times. September 12, 1987. p. 34 (section 1).
  28. Mitgang, Herbert (May 6, 1977). "Publishing: Words of the Carters". The New York Times. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
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