To him the Kingdom of Heaven.
Or as the neo-pagans in our movement might say:
“Wither takest thou me, Warrior Maiden?”
“To the War-Father. To Walhalla.”
Willis has been a fixture in our movement since the 1956 Republican Convention where he worked with a small committee opposing Eisenhower’s renomination.
His hands were everywhere in our cause.
Willis created Western Destiny, a magnificent magazine that functioned for several years. It was of impeccable quality due to the talents of its editor Wilmot Robertson who made his first appearance on the scene in that capacity.
He was the moving force behind many, many movement groups and publications:
Liberty Lobby
The Committee for American Values that led the fight against passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
The Spotlight.
The Institute for Historical Review
Youth for Wallace.
The National Youth Alliance (that later became The National Alliance).
The Barnes Review.
The American Free Press.
Willis published the immensely successful “Political Biography of LBJ” in the 1964 election. Millions of copies of this highly effective tabloid were distributed nationwide in the course of the Goldwater campaign.
As a result his organization Liberty Lobby exploded to an unprecedented size.
Willis incorporated the flood of new names into the mailing list of “Liberty Letter.” Liberty Letter had a subscriber list of over 100,000. It would focus each issue on some bill pertaining to Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society program and mobilize the public to write letters of opposition to their congressman and senators and to the members of the committee handling the proposal.
It is difficult for any such program to succeed even under the best of circumstances. Given that the Democrats achieved an over 2 to 1 numerical advantage in the House and the Senate as a result of Johnson’s landslide victory over Goldwater, it was a labor of Hercules to turn the tide around in 1965 and 1966. Nevertheless, the enormous volume of mail that Willis could put on the desk of legislators did have some effect.
Willis concentrated on the very issue that Buckley, Birch Society and Conservatism, Inc., wanted to ignore:
The repeal of the National Origins Act and the opening of our doors to non-european colonists.
It was for making defeat of the Kennedy-Cellar immigration bill the focus of Georgia Young Americans for Freedom that I was reprimanded by the national office of Young Americans for Freedom. They did not want to do anything about that issue…there were more important matters that needed our attention. Such as the Right to Work Law and the minimum wage.
I have known Willis and his beautiful German born wife Elisabeth for 50 years who was truly his helpmate and shared his devotion to the European race and its civilization. His death leaves a great void.
However, it was apparent to me in the last few meetings I had with him that Willis was becoming physically frail and there were indications that he might be entering into dementia. We can therefore be happy that he did not live on for years in physical agony and senility but has died relatively peacefully in possession of his faculties.
I am sure that all members will join me in sending a message to Willis’ widow Elisabeth of our love and sympathy that are rooted in the gratitude of conscious European Christians all over the world for a lifetime of brave and unflinching devotion to our people’s ultimate redemption and triumph.
Thanks, Willis, for all you did!
Our people at large are unaware of the debt they owe you and of the passing of someone who was their dedicated friend, brother and champion.
But we know.
I encourage all of you to send a note to Elisabeth Carto at PO Box 99, Amissville, VA 20106.