REX NELSON: Rolling into Fordyce

Based simply on longevity, I could have made a case for the 4-Dice Restaurant being one of the 10 finalists this year for the Arkansas Food Hall of Fame. The restaurant opened in 1967 at Fordyce and is still going strong. That's a long time for any restaurant to operate. It has a unique name, a high-profile location on U.S. 167 and is in a historic part of the state that has produced the likes of football legend Paul "Bear" Bryant and music legend Johnny Cash.

But I suspect the thing that really made the difference in the 4-Dice making the final 10 was an incident that occurred on July 5, 1975. That's the day that Keith Richards and Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones found their way into the restaurant. The band had an outlaw image that kept its attorney, native Arkansan Bill Carter, busy.

"Everywhere the Stones went in 1975, it was a challenge for authorities," writes Arkansas music expert Stephen Koch. "Riot squads and narcotics units were common during the group's 28-city, $13 million-grossing tour. On July 4, the Stones played Memphis. Richards and new member Wood decided to sightsee and drive with two others to their July 6 concert in Dallas. Hours later, driving a rented yellow 1975 Chevrolet Impala, they stopped for lunch at the 4-Dice. Paul Holt, whose family owned the restaurant, was in Memphis hoping to see one of the Rolling Stones."

Holt would later say: "Who could have thought for a second they would be here?"

"Wood hit the buffet, going back for seconds on the fried chicken," Koch writes. "Richards ordered the 16-ounce T-bone and tried brown gravy over his French fries on the recommendation of waitress Wanda Parnell. They left a $1.65 tip and autographs. Soon after 3 p.m., the Richards-driven Impala, with Tennessee license plate IKR 160, was cited for reckless driving.

"Stories differ by a few miles concerning where the car was pulled over. Fordyce police officers Joe Taylor and Eddie Childers thought that they smelled marijuana, and the Impala was impounded. After getting a search warrant, police didn't find marijuana but discovered less than two grams of cocaine in a briefcase said to belong to passenger Fred Sessler. Though he passed a sobriety test, Richards was cited for carrying an illegal weapon--a hunting knife."

Richards opened his 2010 memoir Life with an account of his arrest at Fordyce.

It was time to call Carter. Carter's 2006 biography is titled Get Carter: Backstage in History from JFK's Assassination to the Rolling Stones.

Carter was born in January 1936 at Rector in Clay County. Like other boys from poor families in that part of the state, he spent a lot of time chopping and picking cotton.

"On one occasion in high school, he was expelled for starting a fire in an abandoned building where he and his friends were drinking," Colin Woodward writes for the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. "Carter graduated from high school, however, and also worked for a time at a funeral home in Rector. Later in life, unlike some of his famous clients, Carter shunned drugs and only drank occasionally. In 1953, Carter joined the U.S. Air Force and specialized in radar systems repair."

After leaving the Air Force, Carter began classes at what's now Arkansas State University at Jonesboro and graduated in 1961. He then entered law school at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Carter left law school the next year to work for the U.S. Secret Service. He assisted the Warren Commission in its investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, even going to Dallas to interview Jack Ruby. Carter quit the Secret Service in 1966 and returned to law school.

"While practicing law in his home state, Carter found himself defending some colorful characters from Hot Springs, including members of the Dixie Mafia and the famous madam Maxine Temple Jones," Woodward writes. "Carter became friends with Congressman Wilbur Mills, who encouraged him to move to Washington. There, Carter worked for the fledgling company Federal Express. ... Mills put Carter in touch with the Rolling Stones, who had run into trouble with immigration officials during the band's 1972 U.S. tour and were in danger of never being allowed to play in the country again. Carter served as the Stones' lawyer from 1973-90."

Carter also did work for entertainers Tanya Tucker, Reba McEntire and David Bowie. He even had Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa as a client.

"In one of the more bizarre moments of his career, Carter negotiated the return of Steve McQueen's body to the United States after the actor's death in Juarez, Mexico, in 1980," Woodward writes. "Mexican authorities were effectively holding McQueen's body for ransom, but Carter--through some well-timed trickery, luck and intimidation, along with the help of funeral workers in San Antonio--managed to have the body back on U.S. soil in a matter of hours."

Back to Fordyce in 1975: Hundreds of people gathered when word spread that Richards and Wood were being held, and British Embassy officials were called.

Koch writes that those inside the police station "drank soda, and Wood rode a bicycle around the halls. No one spent time behind bars. Before midnight, with Carter's help, the group was released. Richards posted $162.50. He was scheduled to appear in court Aug. 1 but forfeited bond. The Stones also covered Sessler. All left by a plane waiting at the local airport."

Gov. Mike Huckabee, who plays bass guitar and loves music, pardoned Richards in November 2006 for his reckless-driving conviction.