All in the Family

The Carters clean up in 1977

It may have been a mixed first year in office for Jimmy Carter, but it was a darned good one for other members of his family. His brother, sisters and cousin reaped a tidy income harvest that in some cases would never have come their way if Jimmy were not living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The biggest beneficiary, of course, was bulbous Billy Carter, 40, who is working the public appearance circuit for all it is worth. That is about $240,000 annually, based on Billy's normal schedule of four appearances a month at $5,000 an exposure. In addition, the President's brother is the beneficiary, through a complicated royalty formula, of sales of "Billy" beer, which is soon expected to be sold in 48 states. He gets rake-offs on other Billy paraphernalia too.

Sister Ruth Carter Stapleton, 47, is doing very well as an author. Sales of her two books, The Gift of Inner Healing and The Experience of Inner Healing, amount to some 185,000 hard-cover copies. Her estimated $160,000 income is turned over to Stapleton's nonprofit religious corporation, Behold, Inc. Jimmy's other sister, Gloria Carter Spann, 51, reportedly received a $50,000 advance to compile a book of her mother's letters from India, Away from Home: Letters to My Family.

Meanwhile, Cousin Hugh Carter, 57, says that his worm-farm business in Plains, Ga., is booming. Sales of the little wrigglers, used by the bucketful as fishing bait, went up 25% after Cousin Jimmy reached the White House, bringing in gross revenues of $104,250.

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