The first cover story I wrote for Rolling Stone Magazine, back before the dawn of time, was about Jimmy Carter’s top two, very young aides, Hamilton Jordan and Jody Powell–who posed as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for the cover shot. It was the worst-selling Rolling Stone cover of the 1970s, but it launched what now can be described as my lifelong friendship with Hamilton and his good friend and deputy, Jay Beck.
An extraordinary thing happened during the days that Jordan allowed me to spend with him in his west wing office: His mother called to tell Hamilton that his father was dying of cancer. He began to cry uncontrollably, and then he explained to me that cancer was rampant in his family–and that his greatest fear was that he would die that way, too. He asked me to leave the crying off the record, which I did…until now. He lived a life of real courage, with a death sentence hanging over him ever step of the way, and he devoted much of his time and energy to raising money for and running a summer camp for children with cancer. He’ll also be remembered as a demon strategist, the guy who, in his early twenties, wrote The memo that described the strategy by which Jimmy Carter could be, and was, elected President.
But I’ll mostly remember him as a natural born rebel whose favorite song was Bob Dylan’s “Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll.” His proudest accomplishment, he once told me with a smile, was reaching out all the way to Macon for the entertainment for the Albany, Georgia, High School prom–a fellow named Otis Redding, whom Jordan chaffeured to and from the event.
He grew in office. His memoir about the Iran hostage affair, Crisis, is a great read. I didn’t see Hamilton often in recent years, but I’ll miss him…and extend my condolences to his wife, children and many friends.
