Fuller Harding

Lloyd Fuller Harding (August 23, 1915 – January 10, 2010)^[1] was an attorney in Campbellsville, Kentucky, who served in 1942 as a Republican member of the Kentucky House of Representatives from District 36 (Taylor and Adair counties). He was also for twenty-four years the county attorney of Taylor County.^[2]

Harding was born in Campbellsville to Abel Turner Harding (1881–1966), also an attorney, and the former Mary Moore. He graduated from Campbellsville High School in 1933 and received his undergraduate degree from Carson-Newman College, a Baptist liberal arts institution in Jefferson City, Tennessee. He obtained his legal degree from the University of Louisville School of Law in Louisville, Kentucky. He was a member of the Campbellsville Baptist Church. After a year, Harding left the legislature to enter the United States Navy during World War II, having served for three and a half years.^[3] He had succeeded fellow Republican lawmaker Herschel T. Baker (died 1963) of Columbia, the seat of Adair County, who served from 1936 to 1937 and again from 1940 to 1941.^[4]

Robert S. Clark (born 1931), retired vice president for academic affairs at Baptist-affiliated Campbellsville University, said that Harding's father was instrumental in soliciting funds in the early 1900s to open Russell Creek Academy, which in 1906 became Campbellsville College, the forerunner of Campbellsville University. Fuller Harding served for five years on the CU board of trustees.^[2]

In 1967, at the age of fifty-two, the longtime bachelor married the former Willye R. Crawford (August 10, 1909 – September 13, 1996).^[1] On August 3, 2008, he wed the former Martha Tucker Gaddie Burress, who survived him. There were two stepdaughters, Rosalind Tender of Lexington, Kentucky, and Elizabeth Tillotson of Tulsa, Oklahoma.^[2]

Campbellsville University President Michael V. Carter (born ca. 1955) said that Harding's "many accomplishments during his career illustrate the numerous ways in which he had impacted the lives of numerous people. [He had] a wonderful sense of humor. One of the patriarchs of our community has been lost with his passing."^[2] George Barry Bertram, Sr. (born 1935) of Campbellsville, a Democrat who served as a commonwealth's attorney until his retirement in 2006 and is also a CU trustee, recalled that Harding was always immaculately dressed and wore a signature hat. According to Bertram, Harding was a "strong Republican" who kept up with state and local politics long after he had left the legislature.^[2]

Harding died of a lengthy illness in the same house in Campbellsville where he was born ninety-four years earlier.^[2] Harding is interred at Brookside Cemetery in Campbellsville. His pallbearers included Ray H. Altman, also a former state representative from Campbellsville.^[3] Shortly after his death, the Kentucky House honored Harding's service.^[5] Fuller Harding Road in Campbellsville is named for him.^[6]

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