Billy Carter: Georgia Good Ol’ Boy

A reporter once asked Billy Carter if he was a redneck. Billy replied, saying that he was a good ol’ boy, and then shared this bit of wisdom: “A redneck drives around in his pickup truck, drinks beer, and throws the cans out of the window. A good ol’ boy drives around in a pickup truck, drinks beer, but throws the cans in the back of the truck.” Want more tales of Billy Carter? Great, read on!

As a presidential history buff, Mo Rocca has long been fascinated with first families and the striking pattern of, let’s call them …unruly presidential brothers. They go way back to John Quincy Adams’s brother Charles, who was described as a “mad man possessed by the devil.” Ulysses S. Grant’s brother Orvil got mixed up in a kick-back scheme. Donald Nixon received bad publicity for a loan he received from Howard Hughes for his burger business. And remember Roger Clinton? Roger became such a nuisance, that his Secret Service code name was “Headache.” Really.

But no other presidential brother made headlines the way Billy Carter did in the 1970s. Former president Jimmy Carter spoke with Rocca by phone and acknowledged that his younger brother “became the most famous person in our family.” Read more >