Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1531445
A full century of life and service from a good and decent man came to an end last week, as President Jimmy Carter was laid to rest at his home in Plains, Georgia, next to Rosalynn, his wife of 77 years. Not far from the Carter home is the family cemetery plot where other members of the Carter family are buried, includ - ing Christian evangelist sister Ruth Carter Stapleton and fun- loving brother Billy "Billy Beer" Carter. A soul-saving sister and a beer-bottling brother (who once urinated on an airport runway, in full view of the White House press corps); the Carter clan was an interesting and diverse family, one that provided plenty of fod - der for 1970s comedians. Also interred in that same cemetery is Carter's younger sister, Gloria Carter Spann. Carter Spann inherited both the laudable as well as some of the more amusing character traits of her siblings. But unique to this Carter child was a love of motorcycling, and following the election of her brother to the presidency, Cycle News' Gary Van Voorhis visited the presi - dent's sister and her husband Walter at their Plains, Georgia, home for a story published in our January 12, 1977, issue. At the time of the print- ing, Carter was actually still president-elect; the inauguration would not take place for another eight days. Regardless, the first sister was already wary of the news media and expressed her concern to Van Voorhis. Even though her brother was soon to be sworn in as the leader of one of the most powerful nations on the planet, Gloria Carter Spann was most concerned about what this kind of fame would mean for her two-wheeled passion! "We [Carter and husband, Walter], don't want our pictures all over the place," she told CN "because…then we won't be able to go riding anymore without being hassled. To…our riding friends…we're just plain Walter and Gloria, and we'd really like to keep it that way." Humility and a stubborn refusal to toot one's own horn of CNIIARCHIVES P108 BY KENT TAYLOR GLORIA CARTER SPANN LOVED MOTORCYCLING Gloria Carter Spann poses next to a Harley- Davidson for photo for an interview in Cycle News in 1977. The President's Biker Sister