Moses Hardy - Post-World War I

Post-World War I

Throughout the years, he received the Victory Medal, the Occupational Medal from the Mississippi Army National Guard, an honourable discharge (which he had not received upon leaving the army) and the French Légion d'honneur. In 1999, when he was 106 years old, the Mississippi Legislature adopted a resolution recognizing him as an outstanding citizen of Mississippi. At the time, he was known as the oldest living World War I veteran, as Emiliano Mercado del Toro had not yet been discovered. He was interviewed by Treehouse Productions in 2006 as part of their Living History Project, a radio tribute to the last surviving World War I veterans that was hosted by Walter Cronkite. Though he could not speak coherently, his son Haywood Hardy, himself 80 years old at the time, recalled some of the stories that his father had told him.

Hardy did not serve in World War II and instead drove a school bus, farmed and sold linaments and wigs for "Lucky Heart" cosmetics until his retirement. He reportedly continued to go door-to-door for several years past his centenary, even resorting to phone sales when his children hid the keys of his 1972 Chevrolet Caprice. The youngest of his eight children, Jean Dukes, was born in the late 1940s. He also served as a deacon and superintendent of a Sunday School class at Mount Olive Church for over 75 years. His son claimed that, until about four years before he died, his father was healthy enough to drive his car into town every day. Hardy's longevity was also credited to a daily meal that consisted of cabbage, corn bread, butter milk, potatoes and Dr Pepper, and the fact that he never drank alcohol or smoked in his life. Until a few years before his death, it was claimed that Hardy had never had a seriously ill day in his life and that he never took medicine, as it only made him sick. Hardy lived on his own until 2004 when his legs weakened and he found it almost impossible to walk. He was placed in a rest home, but was still able to feed himself and pass the days watching The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Price Is Right.

At the time of his death, he was the oldest United States combat veteran ever, the oldest male ever recorded in Mississippi and had outlived at least three of his eight children. It was reported that he had several dozen grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was also ranked as the sixth-oldest living verified person in the world, the second-oldest man and World War I veteran behind only del Toro and the last African American one. Although he suffered from mild dementia in his later years, he was reported to have been completely lucid through his final days and his death was attributed to natural causes.