When asked about his family, Billy without missing a beat let off one of the best quips of the entire election cycle: "My mother went into the Peace Corps when she was sixty-eight. My one sister is a motorcycle freak, my other sister is a Holy Roller evangelist and my brother is running for president. I'm the only sane one in the family."
One morning in 1976 Billy Carter was driving his pickup truck through Plains when he spotted Jimmy walking with Senator John Glenn of Ohio, a possible Vice-Presidential choice who was in town for an interview with the Democratic nominee. As the nominee introduced the Senator to Billy Carter, the younger brother reached into the car seat, chose a can of beer and popped the cap. Jimmy Carter seemed to shudder.
Brother Billy had the now famous main street sign hung originally in 1966. It proclaimed at the time that plains was the “Home of our next governor.” He changed it in 1970 be erasing with paint the word “next.” In 1975 Billy once again hired painters to change the sign so that it read “Home of the Next President.” Of course the morning after the 1976 general election, painters were again called to change the sign.
A new water town erected in the town during the summer of 1976. A group out of Albany was contracted to dismantle the old water tower piece by piece. The town hadn’t used the rusty tower for years. But according to Billy Carter its dismantling was necessary, “There were people climbing up it. One fellow got up to the top and wouldn’t come down.”
With the primary season over the democratic nominee returned home to plains to rest before the customary start of the fall campaign during Labor Day. The press of course followed him wherever he went, to fish fry, the family pond house to fish with his mother, and the train depot. This was also when the first tourist shuttles and vans began to operate in the town. Before long there seemed to be new and bigger news circulating throughout the town each day. Brother Billy eventually hired an agent and t-shirts reading “Billy Who 1984” were being sold in town.
According to Richard Hyatt author of The Carters of Plains “Miss Lillian held Court at the Depot like the Queen mother.” There was always a constant stream of people wanting to touch her and reach out to her. She finally put up a sign that said “Don’t touch me! Just talk and Keep moving.”
Following Watergate honest was one of the key qualities many Americans claimed they were looking for in a presidential candidate. This lead Jimmy Carter to declare that he would “Never tell a lie or make a miss leading statement.” Miss Lillian told him repeatedly that such promises were impossible to keep. Whenever reporters would question her about the candidate’s plead she would often times make humor out of it. “Jimmy says he'll never tell a lie. Well, I lie all the time. I have to - to balance the family ticket. “
“Should we believe your son when he tells us he won’t lie to us?” one reporter asked during an in-depth interview with Miss Lillian. “Well,” she said to the reporter, “Jimmy tells White lies.” When the reporter asked Miss Lillian to explain what that meant she replied with relish, “Remember how when I met you at the door I told you I was glad to see you?”
At the age of 66 Miss Lillian went to India as a Peace Corps volunteer. As a registered nurse she spent the next two years working in a clinic outside of Bombay. She worked on the presidential campaign full time and became a notable guest on the talk show circuit of the day. Upon her return home, the Carter children built her this pond house
Miss Lillian strongly disliked the commercialization of the town, and soon gave up her daily journeys to the depot. Billy Carter actually moved away from Plains to a town 19 miles away. The increased interest in Plains meant that it attracted to its doors some of the best and worse kinds of people. Often Billy Carter’s service station was filled with strangers looking to rub elbows with him or in some cases promote strange cases.One crafty idea to help promote the city was to purchase off one square inch of land near the depot to interested buyers. Complete with a signed certificate anyone could purchase for five dollars a piece of plains.
In the summer of 1976, as the press gathered around Plains to get acquainted with the Democratic nominee and his family, Billy Carter quickly became a national celebrity. "I got a red neck, white socks, and Blue Ribbon beer," Billy would say with a grin. His service station was always packed with an odd mix of regulars and journalism royalty.
Some felt the tiny town took on the aura of an old Hollywood set on election night. By midday crowds pouring into the town. Candidate Carter appeared at around 5 o’clock to speak on a make shift platform to address the thousands that now gathered around it. Once the Carters left for Atlanta to await their electoral fate the crowds only grew larger.
The final vote that election night was 50.1 percent for Carter and 48 percent for Ford. It took some time for the voters in Mississippi to put Carter over the top, which didn’t take place until 3 am. Carter would receive over 90 percent of the African American vote and most of the rural vote.
The small town was packed with supporters and the bright pink sunlight of the early morning cropped up over the buildings of Main Street and bathed those on the depot platform with a warm sunshine. Jimmy Carter returned home to say thank you.
After climbing up the crowded depot he embraced his mother, brother, and sisters. He was given a copy of the Columbus Enquirer from cousin Betty Pope that read “Carter Wins” and held it up triumphantly to the crowd.
“In 22 months I haven’t been choked up...But when we drove into town, and saw so many people foolish enough to be out in Plains. All the others running for President didn’t have people helping them who would stay up all night in Plains.”
