George W. Hardy Jr.

George Washington Hardy Jr. (January 15, 1900 – July 15, 1967) was a lawyer from Shreveport, Louisiana, who served as mayor from 1932 to 1934 and as a judge of the Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal from 1943 until his death in office.^[1]

Background

Hardy was born in Corsicana in Navarro County southeast of Dallas, Texas, to George Hardy Sr. (1859–1947) and the former Llewella "Lula" Garlick (1866–1937).^[2] He moved to Shreveport when he was seven years of age. Hardy graduated in 1917 from the former Shreveport High School. He thereafter attended Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, from which he graduated in 1920 after a hiatus for service in the United States Army during World War I. He studied for two years at Louisiana State University Law Center in the capital city of Baton Rouge and was admitted in 1922 to the Louisiana Bar Association.^[1] He was chairman of the Edward Douglass White Memorial Commission.^[3]

Hardy and his wife, the former Mary Eleanor Holbrook (born c. 1902), had two sons, John Holbrook Hardy (born 1928), of Shreveport and George W. Hardy, III (born 1932), of Baton Rouge.^[1] He had a sister, Greenwood Hardy Brinkmann (1892–1986), the wife of Francis Charles Brinkmann Jr. (1890–1967), of Shreveport.^[4] One of Judge Hardy's nephews, Charles Brinkmann Peatross,^[2] was a Shreveport city attorney and city council member who like his uncle later served on the circuit court of appeal.^[5]

Career

Hardy first practiced law in Shreveport with his father. In 1932, upon his election at the age of thirty-two, Hardy served a single two-year term as mayor of Shreveport, which then operated under the city commission government. In 1943, Governor Sam H. Jones, appointed Hardy to the circuit court of appeals, to which he was later twice elected. At the time of his death, Hardy was the presiding judge of the appeal court. In 1964, Judge Hardy was named an honorary member of the national law fraternity, the Order of the Coif. He wrote the draft copy of Uniform Rules of the Courts of Appeal and was a president of the Conference of Judges of Louisiana. He wrote many articles published in legal journals and was known as well for his social commentary. In 1964, in a speech before the Shreveport Bar Association, he warned against "extremist" individuals and groups who would thwart the processes of law and endanger the well-being of the nation.^[1] Another circuit court judge, James E. Bolin of Webster Parish, was known for similar social commentary at the time. Bolin's 1969 speech "The Spirit of Rebellion" was critical of demonstrators during the Vietnam War who undermined the American military personnel.^[6] Fred W. Jones Jr., a district judge who later joined the circuit court, voiced similar remarks at public forums.^[7]

Hardy was a member of the Kings Highway Christian Church in Shreveport and was active with the Boy Scouts of America and the American Legion. In 1966, he was appointed to the state Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee and serv ed until his death the next year as the committee chairman.^[1]

Hardy died of a brief illness at the age of sixty-seven and is interred at Forest Park East Cemetery in Shreveport.^[1]

References