The Sweet Talking
Southern Gentleman
By Phil Willmarth • July 2008

BILL TADLOCK, Member of the Order of Merlin Excalibur (50 years continuous membership), former International Treasurer and Executive Committee member of this organization, a long-time magician and mentalist, died July 8, 2008. He was born June 17, 1929 to Lewis Bond ("LB") Tadlock and Louise Respass Tadlock in Washington, North Carolina. He graduated from Washington High School, attended the University of North Carolina for a year and a half, left to serve in the military as did so many of the "Greatest Generation," matriculated from East Carolina University with a B.S. degree in Business, and managed a six-week graduate course at Columbia University in finance. He was also a member and past president of the Psychic Entertainer's Association. (read more)

He married Sally Harrell in 1951 and that union produced two children, Mary Tadlock and Bill Tadlock Jr. Bill went to work for a financial institution after college and somehow managed to stay employed at the same firm his entire working career, although one might not know that for they kept changing names as financial institutions are wont to do these days. He retired as the Chairman and CEO for Bank of America Credit Corporation which became NationsCredit, the financial services subsidiary of NationsBank, with 110 branch offices in nine states and over $550 million in assets. Services included mortgage loans, personal consumer loans, retail and wholesale dealer financing and related insurance businesses. He was adjunct professor at the College of the Albemaiie, past president of the North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland Financial Services Trade Associations, is a certified AVA Analyst, and prepared and taught an eight-week course on Memory and Memory Training at the local college.

How did Bill get interested in magic and what has he done with it? Well, he had an aunt who worked for the Health Department and one of her co-workers showed grade-school-age Bill a coin trick. He was fascinated, so his aunt bought him a Magic Set for Christmas and the hook was set. He performed paid shows up to and through college to help pay for his education and magic habit. He kept up his interest in magic while in the army, practicing at night.
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That habit continued, and his daughter, Mary remembers her dad always practicing after dinner. He would set up and "do a show for us ... my video was live," she told me. Actually, she thought that she and Bill, Junior could have set up a microphone and done the entire show, they knew every word he was going to say. She says, "His closer was 'Confabulation,'" and recalls that, as an eight-year-old, she always used the same three selections: "a pink gremlin that cost seventy-six cents."

Mary also recalls her Mom and Dad practicing much of the spring and early summer preparing to do a show at a Ring 199 Convention in Raleigh. She especially remembers a milk trick they worked on, which ended up with Mom spilling all the milk on Dad. That suggests a lot of milk, a lot of wiping up, and a lot of laundry! Comedy does take extra work.

Sally assisted Bill through the 50's and 60's, but retired from the act then. Bill worked quite well and often as a single into the 80's, until the pressures of his job became too much. Mary says her dad did at least 30 shows a year, and remembers being paid to fold and address brochures for him. He was a close friend of the late Dick Snavely, and a regular at Ring 199 meetings in Raleigh during the 60s and 70s before moving to Elizabeth City in early 1975.

Practice and rehearsal was still a part of Bill Tadlock's life: he, Gene Anderson, and lately, Bob Bloenk, met annually to work on their acts and new routines, giving each other support and constructive criticism. And, it is that kind of dedication that has made Bill Tadlock an excellent magician and mentalist.

For years, Bill would pop up regularly at magic conventions to renew old friendships and make new ones. And I, for one, am confident that they number in the hundreds. It is a pleasure to have known this long-time acquaintance, but relatively new (and, hey, relatively old) good friend here! For me, Bill Tadlock embodies what magic and the I.B.M. is all about ... a friend who was there for you if and when you ever needed him.

He is survived by his wife, Sally; a daughter Mary Mielke of Folsom, California and husband Jeff, a son, Bill Tadlock, Jr., of Valdosta, Georgia and wife Angela Davis Tadlock; a sister, Carolyn Thompson of Windsor, North Carolina; a brother, Milton Tadlock of Windsor, North Carolina, a granddaughter, Victoria Fawn Tadlock; and two step-grandsons, Luke Santos-Mielke and Christopher Burger. He is also survived by a host of "good buddies." Like Will Rogers, Bill "never met a man he didn't like." He was predeceased by a grandson, William Louis Tadlock.

Adapted from the cover story, The Linking Ring, November,  2000.