Chamber Banquet speaker looking forward to being back in Kennett

A native of Rector, who has a long list of associations from the Rolling Stones to Bill Gaither, is the featured speaker as this year's Kennett Chamber of Commerce Banquet, March 16, at the American Legion Building. Bill Carter is looking forward to being in Kennett. "As a kid, we went to Kennett for everything. Rector didn't have that much. You went there to eat. In high school, we were always going over there to run around. It was a bigger town. I was practically raised in and out of Kennett," he said, speaking by phone from his home in Nashville.

Carter has worn a lot of hats: Secret Service agent, politician, lobbyist, security consultant to famous rock and roll artists, artist manager and television producer. The member of the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame attributes most of his success to growing up in northeast Arkansas. "I'm so grateful for having been born in Rector, Ark. It's one of the poorest areas of Arkansas, and in the country. I had uneducated parents. My folks never owned anything in their life. The only car they ever had, my brother gave to them. They never owned a house, and yet I look back on the things I got from them and Rector. I'm forever grateful. I never forget that and the things I got from Rector."

Many incredible things have happened to a man who admits he never planned anything in his life. "I never planned to go to college," he remembered. "I had a strong faith, and I believed there was someone looking out for me. I always prayed and asked for guidance, and I felt I got it, because opportunities kind of popped up in front of me."

Carter left Rector after high school, had a railroad job in St. Louis for a while and joined the U.S. Air Force. After that, he entered Arkansas State University and was attending law school in Fayetteville at the University of Arkansas when one of those things he never planned happened. He accompanied his brother to a civil service test site. His brother was taking the test -- not him. "This woman comes out and was about half-mean. She looked at me and said, 'Are you coming in to take the test?' I said I was not interested in a government job. She snapped back at me, 'Well, just sit there and do nothing, but you could take the test. It might be good experience for you.'"

That civil service test taken almost by coercion landed him a job with the Secret Service. In 1962, Carter found himself in the nation's capital, undergoing basic training by day, and at the White House at night. "You'd be assigned to a senior agent and would go around with him on duty and learn what the job entailed. Here I am, out of money and out of law school, not knowing what to do. Probably a month later, I'm on duty at the White House. It's a long way from Rector to the White House," he said.

Carter worked as a special agent during the Kennedy Administration. Although he has been around some of the most famous people in the music industry, Carter says John Kennedy was the most charismatic person he has ever been around.

Those other people, however, are a Who's Who of politicians, rock and country music stars, and other notables. Some of them were notorious, including Jimmy Hoffa. "I always judge people by how they deal with me, and I was with Hoffa a great deal, and he was really nice to me. I knew who Jimmy Hoffa was. Every time I met with him, he had at least four bodyguards with artillery."

Carter's mentor was the powerful Wilbur Mills, who served as an Arkansas congressman for 40 years. Carter recalls a particular incident that showed him just how much clout Mills had. "When I told him what my investigation on Hoffa had determined, he picked up the telephone, with me standing there, and dialed the White House and got the president on the phone. 'I'm sending Bill Carter over there. He's got something you need to hear.' I get a cab, went over there, and walked into Nixon's office."

As Carter speaks of Mills, the admiration is strong all these years later "Everyone respected him. Even after President Kennedy's death, the Kennedy kids would come to him all the time and seek his advice. It was amazing to me to see somebody from Arkansas with that kind of power."

A primary piece of advice from Mills served Carter well. "He said develop friendships with government officials. They'll help you if they like you. My dealings with the Rolling Stones on behalf of the government was all based on relationships," recounted Carter.

In 1973, Mills asked Carter to help with a sticky immigration matter involving the famed rock group. The Stones were banned by the State Department from ever appearing in the United States after rioting during their 1972 U.S. tour. "I knew how to deal with bureaucrats. They hired the best New York law firm; they failed. Then they hired the most powerful Washington law firm they could hire. They went into the State Department and were thrown out. I went over there and talked to them like one of them. It took me a year-and-a-half, but I got that done because of relationships, not because I was a smart lawyer," he said. In 1974, the State Department reversed its decision on the condition that Carter personally implement a crowd control plan that he patterned after a Secret Service presidential visit advance plan.

Carter is concerned that because of an over reliance on social media, the people skills that served him so well are being lost by most young people. Another concern is the sense of community that benefited him in his hometown. That concern led Carter and a classmate, George Barker, to start the Rector High School Helping Hands Foundation in 2006. "You didn't need help when I was kid, because everybody helped me. Today we've found nobody helps some of these kids, who are in desperate need." The foundation provides short-term financial assistance, health care, school supplies, scholarship, and much more, to students.

When Carter speaks during the Kennett Chamber of Commerce banquet, he intends to talk about his very amazing life, recounted in the autobiography, "Get Carter," which was released in 2006. "Hopefully that will be an example for some young people. My life is the result of being born and raised in Rector, Ark., and Kennett is so similar. Believe in yourself, have a strong faith, and be fearless."

Carter understands that many consider his life pretty amazing. "I've never figured that out. It just came to me. I did it. It was nothing I thought about. It didn't impress me. When you live it, it's not unusual for you. But as I look back, it was pretty interesting."

The Kennett Chamber of Commerce Banquet begins with a social hour and silent auction at 5:30 p.m. Dinner is at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $35 each, or $275 per table of eight. To reserve tickets, contact the Chamber at 573-888-5828.