Athens fixture William 'Ort' Carlton, sage of music, beer, post offices, dies at 73

William Orten Carlton, an Athens native with a photographic memory who without apparent musical ability became a beloved fixture in the city’s music scene and its array of night spots, died on Jan. 21. He was 73.

Carlton, known as “Ort,” died at St. Mary’s Hospital in hospice following a bout of ill health, according to close friends.

The news of Carlton’s death spread widely on social media where old photos were resurrected and memories were shared of a man who since the 1970s had engaged with people over vinyl records, cold beers and live band performances.

“I was in high school and visiting Athens as tympanist in a music school program at UGA. I found myself at the Gyro Wrap counter/bar drinking black coffee and eating fries with feta with Ort. I was there for hours mesmerized,” Virginian Don Whitaker wrote on Facebook as he spoke of a situation that many experienced in a happenstance meeting with Ort.

The man and the memory

Such was the case for those simply astounded by the man’s mental talent.

“He had an amazing memory. It wasn’t a parlor trick or anything like that. He could basically name any place in the United States and the zip codes,” said Kurt Wood of Athens, who as a UGA student met Carlton “over a box of records” in 1977.

Carlton amassed a collection of “tens of thousands of vinyl 45 records,” said Wood, who remained his friend over the years. “I took that to heart. I have about 45,000 45s in my collection.”

Carlton’s extroverted personality, his ability to associate any zip code with a town, give call letters and frequencies for any AM station across the South, name small town eateries or cite beer brands from across the country, was uncanny.

“At first you are overwhelmed when you meet him. You have no idea what this person is about,” recalled Chris McKay, a musician and professional photographer in Athens. “Then you come to know him, even a little, and he’s like your best friend. It’s very strange.”

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Carlton was born in Athens, graduated Athens High School and received a degree in communications in 1980, where he attended a graduation ceremony in Sanford Stadium alongside Wood. His father, William M. Carlton, a native of Wauchula, Fla., was a botany professor at UGA, who died in 1973, and his mother, Betty, a homemaker, died in 2001. An only child, he never married, and eventually ended up living where he was raised in the Homewood Hills subdivision.

He lived nearly his entire life in Athens, but did reside between 1986 and 1990 in Nashville, Tenn., according to Wood. In the early 1970s, Carlton operated his own record shop, Ort’s Oldies, on College Avenue next to the present-day Starbucks.

Ort as inspiration

“I met him on my first day in Athens in the fall of 1972,” recalled Danny Beard, owner of Wax ‘N’ Facts, a record shop in Atlanta. When Beard moved to Athens to attend UGA, he recalled going shopping for records at Ort’s Oldies.

“That was the day I met Fred Schneider, who was working for Ort and running his store,” Beard said about Schneider, a UGA student at the time and future member of the B-52s rock band that emerged with a national following.

Beard credits Carlton for his own business of selling vinyl records.

“It inspired me to start our store here and we’re still here 46 years later. I told him that and he appreciated it,” Beard said.

Chris (Razz) Rasmussen, who operated Chapter Three Records in Athens in the late 1970s, said he met Ort in 1972 at Underground Records on College Avenue.

“If you knew him for 50 years or 20 minutes, he’d give you the same level of warmth,” Rasmussen said. “They said he had memorized the Athens phone book and we didn’t believe that. You’d test him – open up a phone book and say a number and he could tell you the person. It’s amazing to have total recall like that.”

When the 40 Watt Club first opened on College Avenue, Rasmussen said Ort was hired as the doorman.

“He was ever present. He had a booming voice and commanded the area around him,” Rasmussen said.

The 1986 documentary “Athens, GA: Inside/Out,” was narrated by Carlton, according to Rasmussen.

“The B-52’s put Athens on the map and R.E.M. stayed here and they were the band that drew people here and that film made everyone see the town as a cool interesting place,” he said.

Rubbing shoulders with giants

The documentary also made Carlton “a known entity outside Athens and people coming to Athens for the music scene wanted to meet Ort,” Rasmussen said.

Carlton was known by the famous and not so-famous music makers in Athens, becoming friends with the B-52s and R.E.M. He once reported to Athens journalist Chris Starrs that he had attended R.E.M’s first show in town and described it as “magic.”

In that same 2014 interview, Carlton said, “To me, Pylon is the most original band Athens ever produced – they're the pinnacle of art naïve.”

He maintained a longtime friendship with Pylon member Vanessa Briscoe Hay.

Carlton also garnered a following as a columnist for Flagpole magazine.

Flagpole publisher Pete McCommons said Carlton, who wrote columns for the publication on food, beer and his travels, was deeply engaged in the early years of the Athens music scene.

“He would show up at all the house parties before there were music venues. He wasn’t a musician, but he attended all the performances and knew everybody,” McCommons said.

During his frequent travels, Carlton would sample locally made beers, then report on them in his columns.

“He could tell you everything about any music group and beer brewery and delighted in doing so,” McCommons said.

Along the way, Carlton became a subject for widely-know artist Terry Rowlett, who painted Ort in a pose that somewhat mirrors a famous painting of John Brown the abolitionist. “Ort” clutches a walking stick and note pad instead of a Bible and gun.

Rowlett said meeting him was unforgettable.

“I remember thinking, this guy knows a lot of stuff – more than anyone I’ve ever met,” he said.

“He was a humble man. He didn’t come across like a know it all, even though that’s exactly what he was,” Rowlett said.

Professional photographer Lee Matney of Williamsburg, Va., was in Athens last year working on an Art Rosenbaum art exhibit when he saw his friend walking to the Manhattan tavern on Hull Street. Age had wrapped its noose around the man moving slowly in the shadow of his own myth. Matney snapped a picture of him with drooping shoulders, long white hair and beard.

“I had a long conversation with him. I hadn’t talked to him in quite a while. He was going to the Manhattan for his birthday celebration,” Matney recalled.

Athens musician Gregory Sanders grew up in Atlanta and as a teenager saw Ort in the Inside/Out film.

About 2015, Sanders was in Athens and working the bar at Trapeze Pub when he met the real man. One time during a slow moment of work, he recalled they began singing Roger Miller songs.

Learning that Sanders was a fan of older music, Ort would write down songs on bar napkins that he wanted his new friend to hear. Eventually, Sanders established a Facebook page posting the music that his friend recommended. He called the page “Ort’s Oldies.” The page is still active with the handwritten notes and photos.

“When I stopped working at Trapeze we drifted apart. There was nobody like him," said the man, who like so many others, harbors tales about the man called Ort.

“That’s my story,” Sanders said. “I’m just a guy he met at a bar.”

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This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Unique man of Athens music scene, William 'Ort' Carlton, dies at 73