Harry Connick Sr.

Joseph Harry Fowler Connick Sr. was born in Mobile, Alabama, the second of eight children of Jessie Catherine (née Fowler) and James Paul Connick.[2][3] Both his parents and grandparents were from Mobile. His father worked for the United States Army Corps of Engineers. When Harry Jr. was two years old, the family moved to New Orleans.

Music was a large part of his early life, and he was particularly influenced by Glenn Miller.[4] After high school, he served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific during World War II. After the war, he returned to New Orleans and graduated from Loyola University New Orleans with a degree in business administration.[2]

He later joined the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a civilian employee where he met his future wife, Anita Livingston, an accomplished flute player, who became a lawyer and judge. She was one of the first female judges in the city of New Orleans. They married in Tunisia, and spent time in Casablanca, where Connick Sr. contracted tuberculosis. They were sent back to the United States and eventually ended up in New Orleans again.[5] When Harry and Anita Connick returned to New Orleans, they opened a record store. Ultimately they owned two stores while simultaneously pursuing law degrees, one working in the store while the other was at school. They also had a daughter, Suzanna, and a son, Harry Jr.

Anita Connick died of ovarian cancer, in July 1981. On February 1, 1988, Connick married Barbara Bossetta at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans.[6] Barbara had two children from a previous marriage, Patricia and Robert Brandt. Connick later married Londa Jean Matherne on March 25, 1995 in County Tipperary, Ireland.[6] Connick is the uncle of Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick and State Representative Patrick Connick, also of Jefferson Parish.[2][7]

Connick is still involved in New Orleans music and culture. In 1993, he and his son were part of the group that founded the Krewe of Orpheus, a superkrewe that participates in annual Mardi Gras parades.[8] He was nicknamed "The Singing District Attorney" by Time magazine.[9] This nickname was given to him because he spent many nights singing in clubs in the French Quarter, including Maxwell's Toulouse Cabaret.[10]

In 1973, Connick defeated incumbent New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, who had recently been tried and acquitted of corruption charges.

As district attorney, he was the defendant and petitioner in Connick v. Myers, a free speech case in public employment law. In the case, Connick asked Sheila Myers to take a transfer to another position in his office. She had resisted, finally saying she would consider it after a meeting with Connick. Later the same day she distributed a questionnaire on issues of employee morale to her fellow prosecutors, after which Connick fired her.[11]

Myers sued in federal court alleging Connick violated her First Amendment rights by firing her. He maintained she had been fired for refusing the transfer, but judge Jack Gordon of the Eastern District of Louisiana held that the distribution of the questionnaire was speech on a matter of public concern and thus constitutionally protected. Since the facts indicated to him that Myers had been fired for it, he ordered her reinstated. After the Fifth Circuit affirmed Gordon, the Supreme Court granted certiorari and narrowly reversed the ruling, holding that Myers' questionnaire largely touched on matters internal to the office that were not of public concern and thus she was lawfully fired.[11]

In 1987, Connick waged an unsuccessful challenge to incumbent William J. "Billy" Guste Jr. for the position of Louisiana Attorney General. Guste prevailed over Connick, 516,658 (54%) to 440,984 (46%). Both were registered Democrats, but in Louisiana a general election can feature two members of the same party.[12]

In 1989, Connick was indicted on racketeering charges for aiding and abetting a gambling operation by returning gambling records to an arrested gambler.[13] He stated that he returned the records to the man in question because he needed them to file tax returns. On July 25, 1990, he was acquitted.[14]

In 1995, while District Attorney, Connick promised to the Assassination Records Review Board and at a public meeting in New Orleans that he would donate the Garrison investigative files which were still in his office.[15] According to the Review Board's final report, Connick instructed one of his investigators to destroy these documents after he took office.[16] The investigator took them home instead and kept them until he found out about the Review Board. A battle ensued between Connick and the Review Board after Connick demanded that the papers were returned to him and threatening to withhold the investigation papers.[16] After many subpoenas going both ways, and with the help of the Justice Department, the Review Board won and all of the documents in question are in the JFK Collection.[17]

In 2003, Connick did not seek re-election and was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.[18]