MONROE — Australian author Emma Lovell knew she had a story to tell of her cousin, 103-year-old Bill Hunter, formerly of Monroe. Rather than have Bill reminisce a century of stories, she reached out to those who had their hearts touched by him. The response was telling — 111 people replied, some with entirely self-made scrapbooks of stories, photos and antidotes.
“We’ve written it in a way that it’s not just his memoir, it’s just not first-person because I don’t think you get the depth of his story,” Emma said. “At 102 he was telling me all of his stories as if it was yesterday, not missing a beat.”
In 2009, Emma had made a personalized book for Bill where “a bunch people that had written stories about him. It was 111 pages about why they love him, how they met him — fun stories.” He’s very humble and “quite matter-of-fact” when he tells a story, and Emma said she wanted to show the other side of the equation, “the magic that we all get to witness,” watching him interact with people and “do his thing.”
“If he just told it like, ‘I grew up here and I did this, I did that,’ you wouldn’t get quite the wonder or the impact that he’s had on people. That’s what I wanted to show,” she said.
The 234-page book, “A Life of Magic, Bill Hunter’s Story: 102 Years of Service, Showmanship & Unforgettable Storytelling” — now with two copies available at the Monroe Public Library — held its official launch in front of 200 people at the Rockton American Legion Post 332 last weekend. Emma, her husband and 5-year-old son, Finn, were there with Bill for the event. On April 10, they ate lunch at Baumgartner’s Cheese Store & Tavern with friends. Bill, who said his fingers have been numb “for a couple of years now” still brought out smiles with his card tricks and quick wit.
“For years, I thought about writing a book about my life, but as time went on, I kept putting it off,” Bill writes at the beginning of the book. “Then my darling cousin Emma, from Australia, prompted me to finally do it.”
He thanked Emma, “who is responsible for this entire book. I want to thank her for all the hard work she’s put in to make it a success. And as I always tell her: You mean the world to me.”
The book follows Bill’s path from moving to Monroe in the 1920s (where his Scottish father, Jim Hunter, was the first golf pro at the Monroe County Club), to graduating from the “new” high school (today’s middle school) in 1940, then to serving with the Navy in World War II, living in Australia, New York, Greenland and Los Angeles, spending decades with Colony Brands and entertaining crowds at Badger Booster Days and the Indy 500.
“There are thousands of card tricks,” Bill said.
During WWII, Bill served aboard merchant cargo ships, tankers and troop transports. He sailed much of the Pacific area for nearly three years as a gun captain. Bill told the Monroe Times in 2015 that in July 1944, he was in Australia and was sent to the Navy sick bay in Sydney after becoming ill. He was diagnosed with malaria, extending his stay, and it was there that he met and became friends with Steve Belloise, a prize middleweight fighter who fought for the world title twice. Belloise was an amateur magician and taught Hunter some magic — that sparked Bill’s attention to a hobby that would change his life. Although Bill later took magic lessons from American magician Neil Foster, one of the world’s greatest card manipulators, and also flew to London, England to learn from Ken Brooks, one of England’s finest performers, it was Belloise who inspired Hunter to make a career of magic.
After the war, he went to New York City in 1948 to study at the School of Modern Photography. He smiled and said, “never made a nickel from it.”
He worked in Greenland in 1953, 1954 and 1957 at the North American Air Base as a clerk/typist. At the time, the Globecom Tower (1,241 feet) on the Pituffik Space Base (formerly Thule Air Base) was the tallest man-made structure in the world outside of the United States behind the Empire State Building (1,454 feet) and KWTV Mast in Oklahoma City (1,576). “I climbed that,” Bill said of the Globecom Tower. The tower was brought down by the US Army in 1992.
When he got back to the states, he pulled an ace out of his sleeve. While he spent “many years” at Swiss Colony from September to December hiring seasonal employees, he began to travel and show off his magic and card tricks. He would go on to entertain crowds at Swiss Colony sponsored Badger Booster Days in Monroe for 66 years. He also worked the VIP suite at the Indianapolis 500 for 52 consecutive years. He flew across the Atlantic Ocean on the hypersonic speed Concorde jet. He met celebrities, politicians and war heroes, and performed magic in 42 states and 19 foreign countries.
Like any good magician, he doesn’t give away the secrets to his tricks — even the secrets about living for more than a century.
“Just liking people and enjoying every day,” he said, before quipping, “When you’re 103, you get up at noon and then it’s time for a nap.”
Emma said she believes his secret to longevity is in part because of magic and his child-like spirit. She said he’s always joking, has a quick wit, and loves to make people smile.
“I think it’s his sharing the magic. He still practices all the time,” she joked. “I know it sounds funny, but the fact that he shares his magic with people and he’s always hung out with younger people over the years. He’s making new friends all the time. He doesn’t act his age — he never has. He’s always had that child-like spirit — mentally he is about 11. That playfulness, the joking, the quick wit — that never stops.”
Bill still lives independently, Emma added. He’s still getting the duster and the vacuum out, cooks his own food, goes to the bank and the post office every day, and recently got his driver’s license renewed.
Like his father, Bill loved to golf. He played his last round in 2024.
He said he loves to come back to Monroe whenever he gets the chance. It’s where he goes to “get good cheese,” adding that his favorite type is sharp cheddar.
“Swiss Colony has good cheese, and so does Alp-N-Dell,” Bill said. Colony Brands sponsored the food at the launch.
“He loves the dips and the spreads. He’s always got his freezer full of French Onion spread,” Emma said.
He once lived in the apartments above Baumgartner’s for a year. Now returning to Monroe again, he said not a lot has changed in 100 years, “except for a couple of paint jobs. The high school was new in 1940, but it’s a grade school now.” The new $88 million-plus high school being built on the far east side will mark the fourth high school in Monroe of his lifetime. “My girlfriend Diane (Hendricks) should take care of that, shouldn’t she,” he joked of his friendship with the Beloit-based billionaire.
