Leslie C. Hardy

Hardy was born in 1886 in Indian Fields, Kentucky, and was a descendent of Daniel Boone. In 1894 his parents moved the family to Arizona. He graduated from Wake Forest with a law degree in 1909, and was admitted to the Arizona bar that same year.[2]

In 1911, he ran unsuccessfully for Pima County attorney, losing to Republican George Hilzinger in December's general election.[3] The following year, while still living in Tucson, Hardy was appointed to the newly created position of assistant Attorney General of the State of Arizona, the State's first.[2][4] In 1914 he ran for the State Attorney's General office. However, he was defeated by Wiley E. Jones in the Democrat primary.[5] When the U. S. entered World War I, he enlisted in the U. S. Army, and served in the 7th Cavalry under then Lt. Colonel George S. Patton. While he was still in the service, he was elected county attorney in Santa Cruz County, and was released from active duty to return to Arizona to assume his position as county attorney.[2] He married Nora E. McComb in Los Angeles, California on September 29, 1920. She was from Phoenix.[6] The couple had one child, Dorothy Anne. Nora died on February 12, 1936, in Phoenix, after a long illness.[7]

In the early 1950s he was in charge of revising Arizona's statutes. After a five-year process, his commission's revisions were codified into law by the Arizona State Legislature. Over his career, he advised most of Arizona's governors, and became known as the "Dean of Arizona's Lawyers". At some point he remarried, his second wife's name was Josephine, who he remained married to until his death. He died on October 18, 1968, in St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix.[2]