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One day in 1974, Bill Hefner sat behind the mike of his gospel music radio station in Kannapolis and interviewed incumbent 8th District congressman, Republican Earl Ruth.
That night, according to friend Elvin Jackson, he went home and talked to his wife. “Shoot,” he said, “if that's what it takes, I can do that.”
And Hefner did. The Concord Democrat beat Ruth that year and went on to serve 24 years before stepping down in 1999. He retired to his native Alabama, where he died Wednesday after suffering a brain aneurism. He was 79.
Hefner became one of North Carolina's most powerful lawmakers. For more than a decade he chaired the Appropriations Military Construction Subcommittee, one of a handful of subcommittee chairmen known as “Cardinals” for their power over the federal purse.
In that position, he funneled millions of dollars into North Carolina – not only for military bases but airports, Carolinas Medical Center and national forests. An elementary school at Fort Bragg and the VA hospital in Salisbury bear his name.
Hefner didn't take the usual route into politics.
In 1953, he helped start a gospel group called the Harvesters Quartet. He also hosted a country music show on Charlotte's WBTV Saturday afternoons and a two-hour gospel show on a Winston-Salem station on Sunday mornings. Hefner went on to buy gospel station WRKB-AM in Kannapolis.
When he decided to run for Congress in 1974, he had a built-in base.
“Politicians didn't know who he was,” said Jackson, “but every working man in the 8th District knew.”
Hefner promised to “help restore Christian morality in the federal government,” a message that resonated with his district's mostly blue-collar voters in the first election after Watergate.
“He grew up and lived with mill town folks,” recalled former Gov. Jim Hunt. “He shared their values, he cared about their problems, he was one of them. …It was amazing to watch him at a political rally talk to his constituents and then sing to them.”
Hefner's folksy style and Washington muscle helped him get elected 12 times and buck at least two Republican tides.
“He was able to win in Republican years like '84 and '94 when other Democrats weren't able to hang on,” said Morgan Jackson, a Democratic consultant in Raleigh who worked for Hefner in 1996 and whose father, Elvin, was Hefner's district director for all 24 years.
Hefner was one of North Carolina's longest-serving lawmakers when he retired in 1999.
“He may have come from a show business background, but he was a work horse, not show horse,” said the district's current congressman, Democrat Larry Kissell.
Hefner is survived by his wife, Nancy; daughters Shelly, of Guntersville, Al., and Stacye, wife of former Democratic Rep. Charlie Rose; and four grandchildren.
