W. G. "Bill" Hefner

Published in The Washington Post

on 9/4/2009

W.G. "Bill" Hefner, 79, a North Carolina Democrat who served 12 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives in a district that included Fort Bragg and who was known for advocating greater military spending, died Sept. 2 at a hospital in Huntsville, Ala., of a brain aneurysm.

Mr. Hefner, who moved to Alabama after not seeking reelection in 1998, fell ill the evening before his death while attending a county Democratic Party dinner in Guntersville, Ala.

Mr. Hefner was a professional gospel singer and radio station owner before running for Congress in the wake of the Watergate scandal. He won election in 1974 as a reformer who promised to "help restore Christian morality in the federal government." He represented a district covering mostly south-central North Carolina, including the communities of Concord and Salisbury.

In 1982, he became chairman of a House Appropriations Committee military subcommittee that had authority over most construction on U.S. military bases. He also was known for his work on veterans' issues and sponsored a "buy American" amendment for military clothing, according to the Almanac of American Politics.

He moved up the seniority ladder, becoming a power broker who was called on by Democratic and Republican governors to get funding for state projects. Gov. Jim Hunt said he contributed to getting Interstate 40 completed from Raleigh to Wilmington.

Willie Gathrel Hefner was born in Elora, Tenn., on April 11, 1930, and raised in Boaz, Ala., where his father was a farmer and a barber.

Bill Hefner starting singing as a young man in gospel groups, which brought him to the attention of a television station [WBTV] in Charlotte in the early 1950s. He became a founding member of the Harvesters Quartet, which sang on the station. In the 1960s, he bought a radio station, WRKB in Kannapolis, N.C. He sold the station several years after being elected to Congress.

He lived in McLean while serving in the House and most recently was a Guntersville resident.

Survivors include his wife of 57 years, Nancy Hill Hefner of Guntersville; two daughters, Stacye Rose of Cedar Springs, Ga., who is the wife of former Rep. Charles Rose (D-N.C.), and Shelly Smithson of Boaz; a brother; a sister; four grandchildren; and a great-grandson.