Billy Carter

Billy Carter (born March 29, 1937, Plains, Georgia, U.S.—died September 25, 1988, Plains) farmer and businessman who rose to national prominence when his older brother, Jimmy, was elected president of the United States in 1976.

(Read Britannica’s interview with Jimmy Carter.)

A peanut farmer and proprietor( of “Billy Carter’s filling station” in Plains, Georgia, Carter delighted in embellishing his image as a “beer-drinking good ol’ boy.” He turned his celebrity status to his advantage by hiring an agent and making public appearances for $5,000 each. He also sold his name to a brewing company that marketed the short-lived Billy beer. His behaviour shed a dark cloud over the White House in 1978 when he became an apologist for Libya and in 1980 when evidence came to light that he had agreed “under protest” to register as a Libyan agent and admitted receiving $220,000 from the government of Libya’s Muammar al-Qaddafi. Although a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee concluded that Carter’s activities had had no influence on U.S. policy, his actions were an acute embarrassment to the president, who nonetheless refused to distance himself from his irrepressible younger brother. In 1981 Billy Carter was forced to sell his Plains property, including his gas station, to pay federal taxes and to satisfy local bankers. After his home was auctioned, Carter moved his family to Haleyville, Alabama, and joined Tidwell Industries as a sales representative. In 1985, while serving as vice president of Scott Housing Systems, Inc., he entered a guilty plea on behalf of the company on charges that it had participated in padding invoices. The company was fined $10,000 and was ordered to make restitution to the Veterans Administration. Carter suffered from pancreatic cancer for a year before his death.