Alfred ‘Bucket’ Carter dies at 80

16th March 2015   ·   0 Comments

By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing cash loans to your door no credit check Writer

“I had a good life in second lines, I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” Alfred “Bucket” Carter once enthusiastically declared. Remarkably, Carter was a member of and paraded with the Young Men Olympian Jr. Benevolent Association, Inc. for 75 wonderful years. Carter, who proudly held the position as a parade chairman with the 130-year-old organization, died on Monday, March 9, 2015 at the age of 80.

When Carter was just five years old, a member of the YMO went to his parents and asked if the youngster could join the association. They agreed and since that time he paraded with the YMO every year for its anniversary second lines held each September.

Everyone called Alfred Carter Bucket or Mr. Bucket, which he would, in his typical good humor, laughingly explain was due to the shape of his head. He was a member of the YMO’s First Division, a parade unit known for its preference for traditional brass band music and old style ways. “If you want to jump and flip flop and all of that, go to one of the other divisions,” Carter once suggested while in no way condemning any of the other styles of music or dance.

“He was a legend of the culture and an example for young men coming up,” says Norman Dixon Jr., the president of the Young Men Olympian Jr. Benevolent how long does it take to get money from a payday loan Asso­ciation. Dixon, like his father, the culture’s highly respected late Norman Dixon Sr., worked with Carter for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Carter began his stint as the festival’s parade coordinator assistant in the early 1990s. He also worked at the K&B Drug Store’s warehouse and retired from the job at age 62.

Beyond parading, Bucket was totally involved with all of the activities of the YMO. According to Dixon, he never missed a parade or a meeting and handled other aspects of the club’s events like raffles and dances.

If there was a second line whether it be uptown or downtown or if the Black Indians were out on the street, Bucket could be found standing — usually with a smile on his face — on a corner. For friends and admirers to stop and greet him meant their day was complete.

“Not only did he enjoy going out and taking the time to be a part of everybody’s day by supporting them, he felt an obligation to this culture,” Dixon observes. “That’s why he stayed around and kept doing what he did. I would say 99 per cent of anybody who is really involved with this culture was effected and influenced by Alfred Carter, better known as Mr. Bucket.”

Carter was a strong believer in the Young Men Olympian’s important role in the community. “We take care of quick loan stores our sick and bury our dead,” he once pointed out. He also understood the association’s impact on children who became members of the YMO. “It’s a privilege for a child to be a part of our organization,” he offered during a 2007 interview. “We try to teach them the right way. We’re a stickler for being father figures for those who don’t have fathers, a big brother or an uncle. A lot of them in the street look up to me because of the way I carry myself. Some of them call me ‘Unc.’”

“He was an example to anybody who wants to know about dedication to any particular organization, any job, anything you’re involved with,” says Dixon, who, like so many, considered Carter their role model. “He could be a photo – a picture – of how it’s supposed to be. When you think about how dedication would be symbolized, you have a picture of Mr. Bucket.

“I put everything into this,” Bucket rightfully once proclaimed of his involvement with the Young Men Olympian Jr. Benevolent Association. “It’s my life and I love it.”

Funeral services will be held for Alfred “Bucket” Carter on Saturday, March 21, 2015 at the Israelite Baptist Church, 2100 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Visitation begins at 8 am, the service at 10 a.m.

This article originally published in the March 16, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.