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Life of James Carter Williams
It was seventy-one years ago, on May 27, 1935 in the quant little settlement of Cockburn Town, San Salvador that Arnold and Beatrice Williams (deceased) became the proud parents of a second son, whom they named James Carter Williams.
Carter or JC, as he was affectionally called, obtained his education at the San Salvador All Age School, and later served as a monitor at the school for two years. This institution prepared Carter for a life that would embark upon many changing scenes, both at home and internationally.
During the construction of the U.S. Air force base in San Salvador, Carter sought employment with the McDonald Construction Company, where he learned to operate heavy equipment. Jumping on a tractor, pay-loader or any such equipment of that nature, was always a joy for him. Even up to the time he became sick, just over a year ago, some evenings long passed sunset would find JC on his excavator dredging the entrance to the marina or pushing up quarry at the side of the marina. So it was no surprise to his family and friends to hear him say, how much he was looking forward to handling that piece of iron again whenever he visited the marina, although everyone knew those days for him would only be a memory.
In 1954, he traveled to the United States as a migrant farm worker picking oranges, which exposed him to a whole new world. While he always had pleasant memories of that chapter in his life and related to days whenever he visited the U.S. in later years; Carter felt that his place was in his native island of San Salvador and therefore turned down several opportunities to enter the field of construction in the US and returned home.
On July 6, 1961 he took Millicent Jane Adderley, as his bride and the union was blessed with five wonderful children: Kevin, Michelle, Carlos, Jamal and Jayson.
Upon Carter’s return home, his entrepreneurial spirit inspired him to become the island’s grocery store on wheels, driving throughout the island selling to the residents. During this time he also did chicken farming and of course he sold his freshly plucked chickens as well. Like a merchant seeking opportunity, he later went on to operating a snack bar on wheels at the San Salvador Teacher’s Training College Campus, selling lunch to the students. When the college closed its doors in the late 60’s, JC moved his snack bar to a permanent structure at its present location, where it remains in operation to this day, as Carter’s Snack Bar.
In 1973, Bahamasair commenced service to San Salvador and JC, as he is called by most of his friends at the company, became the agent for the airline. Without an office, telephone or any type of office equipment as we know it today, he initially used the back of the snack bar and his car for the sale of airline tickets. Later he constructed an office building, which he used as Bahamasair’s office and the airline installed a transmitter radio for communicating passenger reservations and flight information. Many times when the island’s telephone system was down (which was often) JC had to intervene by using the airline's transmitter radio to relay messages via the Bahamasair employee to the relevant contacts in Nassau. He was employed with Bahamasair for 27 years, which afforded him many opportunities to travel throughout the world to such places, as Europe, Spain, Thailand, UK, and the United States.
As the island progressed, Carter became involved with land clearing and road construction, once again using his skills as heavy equipment operator. He worked with Columbus Landings Company, the former owners of Riding Rock Inn, to develop the four subdivisions in Sandy Point, San Salvador. These subdivisions became the island’s real estate ‘showcase’ to the tourists. By this time, words of San Salvador’s newly discovered pristine underwater marine life, spectacular dive sites and fishing meca was spreading internationally; hence the dawning of tourism for the island, as we know it today. Many visitors became spellbound by the tranquil island experience, and went on to purchase property; presenting a new chapter in Carter’s life, as a building contractor. He constructed many houses in Sandy Point, forging lasting friendships with the homeowners.
In 1983, Columbus Landings decided that is was time to move on and closed the doors of Riding Rock, the island’s only hotel at that time and left the islanders to fend for themselves. However, it was not long before Carter took a bold step forward, putting much of what he had on the line, to purchase Riding Rock Inn and Marina in 1985 and reopened the doors to new and former guests on March 1, 1986. Returning an economic boost to the island and providing employment to the previous staff, some of whom are still with the hotel to this very day. The operation spanned between its reservations office in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and San Salvador. Since taking ownership of the hotel, he has renovated the 2 one story room buildings, constructed a two story room building, increasing the total number of rooms to 42 and expanded the marina by 15 slips.
Carter spent many wonderful days at his establishment, meeting new people and hosting old friends. In conversations with them, no matter what the subject matter, he always ended up talking about how it all got started for him and his plans for the future. Even when the children began to take over the operation, his words were always, ‘I want to share my plans’ which he did to the very end. Given Carter’s style and love for talking with people, he would often sit with the staff for extended periods just talking and reminiscing of the past, after realizing later how much time had past or whenever things did not go as planned, he would jokingly say to them, “now who gon pay”. This phrase became a familiar one throughout the island locally, whenever his name was the subject of conversation.
Among his many accomplishments, he operated a fuel station and provided direct cargo boat service between Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and San Salvador. He was awarded the contract and constructed the local health center, worked on the extension of the airport and sold real estates. He served on the Board of Works and Town planning for several years, was a member of the Kiwanis Club of San Salvador for many years and most recently, assisted in forming and was a member of the men’s ministry and male choir of San Salvador.
While Carter was very business savvy, he never forgot from whence he came or from whom his blessings came. He was a member of the Cockburn Town Seventh-day Adventist church, where he served as officer of the church in several departments over the years, and was he church organist until his death. He had a special passion for his church, and delighted in making his contributions wherever possible, especially when it came to singing. Church Pastors and members all alike, knew how Brother Carter felt about the church’s affair and often did not hesitate to express his views. His dream was to see the expansion of the church building to include a Pastor’s living facility, fellowship Hall and ABC center, however God did not grant him that opportunity.
In April, 2005 Carter was diagnosed with Leukemia, which is cancer of the blood. He was admitted to the hospital to began chemotherapy for his illness, on May 27th, his 70th birthday. This treatment was done in three stages, with the final treatment really making him extremely ill, nevertheless God restored his health for a while and his blood count returned to normal. Many never thought he would return to San Salvador, but he did and right away wanted to continue life as before. While that was a physical challenge for Carter, he still went almost everyday to the various jobsites and drove again in his pickup truck. Later he stopped driving, which was difficult for him to accept, but he continued to go just the same.
On June 5th, Carter woke up and informed his wife of chest pains. He was taken to the local clinic where he was examined and the family was advised to fly him to Nassau for further medical assistance. He was admitted to hospital and it was later discovered that the leukemia had return. During this time Carter was still talking and singing with all that visited him in the hospital. The nurses referred to him as the ‘singing patient’ and he often told them that he was going on back to San Salvador. That did not happen in his lifetime and on June 16th, he became critically ill, did not talk to anyone, but was experiencing tremendous pain. Later that evening around 11:30pm Carter’s speech and singing was silenced for good, as he passed on to take his eternal sleep.
Treasured memories of his legacy, lives on with his wife, Millicent, six children, Kevin, Michelle, Carlos, Jamal and Jayson Williams, and Lorraine Knowles of Long Island.
An adopted son: Sean Ferguson.
Three daughters in law: Dynnell, Annya and Tanya Williams.
One son in law: Henry Knowles.
Eleven grandchildren: Deron, Victoria, D’Andra, Kennyce, K’Juan, Jemma, Courtney, Kaitlyn Williams, Leslie, Melissa and Cordero Knowles.
One great grandchild: Raullando.
Three brothers: Lorenzo (Joe) Williams of Long Island, Preston and Wesley Williams of Freeport.
Three sisters: Olive Ferguson of West Palm Beach, Melrose and Eleanor Williams. Ten sisters in law: Yvonne, Catherine and Keva Williams, Areline Calhoun of Agusta, Georgia, Brenda Hart, Ruth Turnquest, Mavis Seymour, Denise and Gwen Adderley and Denamae Sands.
Three brothers in law: Andy and George Adderley and Philip Sands.
Six aunts: Emily Smith, Joycelyn Hanna, Mabel, Eliza Malcolm and Gloria Mitchell. One uncle: Roland Mitchell, numerous nieces and nephews and a host of other relatives and friends.
Including, the President, Pastors, officers and members of the Bahamas Conference of Seventh-Day Adventist, Mr. and Mrs. Ednald Thompson, Mr. & Mrs. Clifford Fernander, Pastor Roy Fernander, Mr. Philip McKenzie, Mr. and Mrs. Roland Pinder, Mrs. Eureka Knowles, Pastor Ada Forbes, Mrs. Pamela Storr, Miss. Curline Fernander, Mrs. Idell Jones, Mr. & Mrs. Bert Deveaux, Mr. & Mrs. Granville Walker, Mr. & Mrs. Nathaniel Walker, Mrs. Faith Jones, Mrs. Caroline Fernander, Mr & Mrs. Wellington Fernander, Mr. & Mrs. Clifton Storr, Mr. & Mrs. Alric Butler, Mr. & Mrs. Herman Bastian, Mr. & Mrs. Charles Miller, Mr. Bradley Forbes, Mr. Dencil Burrows, Mr. Roland Lamour, Mr. Mike Stubbs, Mr. Ross Knowles, Ms. Rhonda Bain, Mr. & Mrs. Gregory Bascom, Ms. Monique Gomez, Mr. and Mrs. Allan Smith, Mr. & Mrs. Dennis Johnson, staff of Riding Rock Inn and Marina and the entire community of San Salvador and many others, too numerous to mention.
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His legacy
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