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Billy Carter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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
Carter photographed between 1977 and 1981 by Bernard Gotfryd
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

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.

Early life

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William Alton "Billy" Carter was the fourth and youngest child of Lillian and James Earl Carter Sr.[3] He 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

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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, 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.[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] Billy Carter's name was occasionally used as a gag answer for a Washington, D.C. trouble-maker on 1970s episodes of Match Game.[citation needed] 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.[16][17] He later became sober and reportedly extended support to other addicts in their own recovery.[15]

In 1981, he was forced to sell his Plains properties to pay taxes and debts and moved to Haleyville, Alabama where he worked in sales for Tidwell Industries.[18] In 1985, he became Vice President of Scott Housing Systems.[18]

Relationship with Libya

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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,[19] only $1,000 was repaid.[20] However, Edwin P. Wilson claimed he had seen a telegram showing that Libya paid Billy Carter $2 million.[21] This led to a Senate hearing on alleged influence peddling which the press named Billygate.[22] A Senate sub-committee was called To Investigate Activities of Individuals Representing Interests of Foreign Governments (Billy Carter—Libya Investigation).[23]

"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[24]

A 1985 Wall Street Journal article suggested that a series of Billygate articles written by Michael Ledeen and published in The New Republic in October 1980 were intended to influence the outcome of that year's presidential election. According to the reporting, Francesco Pazienza, an officer of the Italian intelligence agency SISMI, alleged that Ledeen was handed Billygate information by the Italian Intelligence agency and he co-authored the articles with Arnaud de Borchgrave.[25] Pazienza was later tried and convicted in absentia for using "extortion and fraud to obtain embarrassing facts about Billy Carter".[26]

Death

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Carter was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the fall of 1987 and received unsuccessful treatments for the disease.[27] He died in Plains the following year at age 51,[28] five years after the death of his sister, Ruth Carter Stapleton, who also died of pancreatic cancer at age 54. Two years following his death, his older sister, Gloria Carter Spann, died at age 63 with same pancreatic cancer.[19] Their father, James Earl Carter Sr., also died of the disease at age 58. His mother, Bessie Lillian Gordy, died from breast cancer at age 85.

After Billy died, his wife Sybil opened a cafe.[29][12]

Bibliography

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  • Carter, William "Buddy" (1999) Billy Carter: A Journey Through the Shadows (ISBN 1-56352-553-4).
  • Carter, Billy (1977). Rifkin, Jeremy; Howard, Ted (eds.). Redneck power : the wit and wisdom of Billy Carter. New York, New York: Bantam Books.[30]

See also

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References

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  1. ^
  2. ^ "Billy Carter". Biography.com. Archived from the original on January 8, 2019. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
  3. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b c d Soper, Susan (September 25, 2013). "Billy Carter: Beer Drinker, Book Lover". Legacy.com. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  6. ^ Billy Carter's Station
  7. ^
  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. ^ a b "Sybil, good ole boy..." The Tennessean. Nashville, Tennessee. June 26, 1977. p. 65. Retrieved February 23, 2023 – via newspapers.com.
  13. ^
  14. ^ "Billy Carter Curbs Tongue", Spokane Daily Chronicle, January 15, 1979
  15. ^ a b 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. ^ a b "Billy Carter". Britannica. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  19. ^ a b 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.
  20. ^ "Billy Carter Role in Iran Hostage Crisis Disclosed". The Los Angeles Times. July 23, 1980. p. 1. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  21. ^ Joseph J. Trento, Prelude to Terror: Edwin P. Wilson and the Legacy of America's Private Intelligence Network (Carroll and Graf, 2005), p. 162.
  22. ^ Sabato, Larry (July 21, 1998). "Billygate – 1980". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 28, 2011.
  23. ^
  24. ^ 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.
  25. ^ Blumenthal, Sidney (February 15, 1987). The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/02/16/journal-in-turmoil/dcd04eee-a204-49b1-8df5-857e687ed660/. Retrieved October 29, 2024. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  26. ^ Unger, Craig (July 2006). "The War They Wanted, the Lies They Needed". Vanity Fair. Retrieved August 5, 2013. A 1985 investigation by Jonathan Kwitny in The Wall Street Journal reported that the New Republic article was part of a larger disinformation scam run by Ledeen and SISMI to tilt the election, and that "Billy Carter wasn't the only one allegedly getting money from a foreign government." According to Pazienza, Kwitny reported, Michael Ledeen had received at least $120,000 from SISMI in 1980 or 1981 for his work on Billygate and other projects. Ledeen even had a coded identity, Z-3, and had money sent to him in a Bermuda bank account, Pazienza said. Ledeen told the Journal that a consulting firm he owned, I.S.I., worked for SISMI and may have received the money. He said he did not recall whether he had a coded identity. Pazienza was subsequently convicted in absentia on multiple charges, including having used extortion and fraud to obtain embarrassing facts about Billy Carter. Ledeen was never charged with any crime, but he was cited in Pazienza's indictment, which read, "With the illicit support of the SISMI and in collaboration with the well-known American 'Italianist' Michael Ledeen, Pazienza succeeded in extorting, also using fraudulent means, information … on the Libyan business of Billy Carter, the brother of the then President of the United States."
  27. ^ "Billy Carter Has Surgery". The New York Times. September 12, 1987. p. 34 (section 1).
  28. ^
  29. ^ "Jimmy Carter". booknotes.org. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  30. ^ Mitgang, Herbert (May 6, 1977). "Publishing: Words of the Carters". The New York Times. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
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