Moses Hardy
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Moses Hardy (January 6, 1893 or 1894 – December 7, 2006) was the oldest living combat veteran and last African American veteran of World War I. [1] He became the oldest documented man in the United States on the death of Fred H. Hale, Sr. in November 2004, and second-oldest in the world after Emiliano Mercado del Toro. He was the second-oldest surviving World War I veteran in the entire world, the oldest veteran of any war in history to have ever seen combat (if 113), and the oldest living man in the United States. He was born in Aberdeen, Mississippi, and he is the oldest male resident of the state of Mississippi ever recorded. His parents were freed slaves, and his family claims that his father was born in the 1820s.
Hardy served for one year (from July 1918 to July 1919) in France with the 805th Pioneer Infantry during the war, and spent 39 days in combat. He returned to his hometown of Aberdeen after the war, where he farmed, drove a school bus and sold cosmetics. Until his death, he lived in Aberdeen.
Hardy had a large family, spread out over the entire country including the suburbs of Chicago. Of his eight children, five are still living as of 2006. Hardy had sixteen grandchildren, thirty-two great-grandchildren and six great-great-grandchildren.
There is some dispute about Moses Hardy's exact birth date. While his ID card, 1930 census and 1910 census support the 1893 date, his WWI papers and the 1900 census list him as born in 1894, which would make him only 112 when he died (but even here there is disagreement: the 1900 census says January 1894, while the draft papers say June 1894). This would drop him from the 'oldest combat veteran ever' title, but he would still have maintained the 'oldest man in America' title. If he was 113, then he would have been the oldest man who was never the oldest living man, if we ignore the spurious cases of the 1980s.
While his age status was not resolved, Mr. Hardy was at least not less than 112 years old at the time of his death.
