Paul Hardy - Background

Background

Hardy's parents, who married in 1939, were Florent Hardy, Sr., (1913–2003) and the former Agnes Angelle (1904–2008) of Cecilia in St. Martin Parish. Agnes Angelle was a homemaker, schoolteacher, and principal who was visited at school by former state education superintendents T. H. Harris and Shelby M. Jackson. Agnes's brother, Bob Angelle, and hence the maternal uncle of Paul Hardy, was a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1934 to 1964 and House Speaker from 1957 to 1960.

Agnes's father, and hence Paul Hardy's maternal grandfather, was Drauzin Angelle, a constable, deputy sheriff, and a Democratic power broker in St. Martin Parish during much of the first half of the 20th century. Paul Hardy has a sister, Mary Agnes Belleau and her husband, Dr. Charles Dewey Belleau, of Baton Rouge, and a brother, J. Florent Hardy, Jr., the Louisiana state archvist, also in Baton Rouge. Florent Hardy and his staff have published Louisiana 2012: A Bicentennial Celebration of History, Culture and Natural Resources for the bicentennial year of Louisiana statehood.

In 1960, Hardy graduated from Cecilia High School. In 1965, he received his bachelor's degree from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, then the University of Southwestern Louisiana, from which his mother also graduated. While Hardy was on the USL track team, he won the Gulf States Conference high jump competition for two consecutive years.

In 1966, Hardy received his law degree from Loyola University College of Law in New Orleans, and at the age of twenty-three, he began practicing law in St. Martinville with the firm Willis and Hardy.