William T. "Bill" Hanna

William Thomas Hanna, Jr., known as Bill Hanna (born September 26, 1930), a former Ford Motor Company automobile dealer, served a single term from 1979 to 1982 as the Democratic mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana.

Born in Missouri to William Hanna, Sr., and the former Irma Bell,^[1] Hanna graduated in 1947 from C. E. Byrd High School in Shreveport. He has a brother, Kenneth G. Hanna (born 1939), who also worked in the automobile business.

Prior to his election and inauguration as mayor in November 1978, Hanna had been the appointed Caddo Parish administrator (similar to county judge in other states). For mayor, he defeated the municipal Public Works Commissioner Don Hathaway, a fellow Democrat who in 1980 became Caddo Parish sheriff. Hanna was well known for his popular sales slogan, "You Canna Ford a Hanna Ford." The company no longer exists. Also in the race was the defeated Republican, Billy Guin, the last of the Shreveport public utilities commissioners.

Hanna was the first Shreveport mayor under the mayor-council home-rule city charter, which replaced the former commission city government. He was also the first mayor in decades who was not serving in public office at the time of his election. He recruited nationally and secured exceptional people to serve in municipal government. Many noted that Hanna did not seem really interested in "politics". Such an attitude made it appear that he did not like being mayor.

Former Mayor James C. Gardner served as a city council member in the Hanna administration and helped chart the new form of government. Other council members included Charles B. Peatross, a future judge of the Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit; Gregory Tarver, later a Louisiana State Senate; John Scotto, a civil engineer from southwest Shreveport; Hilry Huckaby, first vice-chairman of the council, and the Reverend Herman Farr (1918–2008), a leader of the Shreveport NAACP. Tarver, Huckaby, and Farr were the first African Americans to have served in Shreveport municipal government since Reconstruction.

In his memoirs Jim Gardner and Shreveport, Vol. II, Gardner described Hanna, accordingly:

His self-assurance as a businessman shaped his approach to running city government. He sought proven professionals as department heads, something for which he never received adequate credit. He could never bring himself to 'view with alarm and point with pride' as a political leader must do. And so he never received the credit that he was due. ...

In four years, he never initiated a political conversation in my presence. It was just not his thing, and it made his position not as pleasant for him as it could have been. But he always desired to do what he felt was best for Shreveport. And no taint of impropriety ever attached itself to him.^[2]

Some two weeks after becoming mayor, Hanna presented to legendary actor John Wayne, then in the last year of his life, the second annual "Spirit of Independence" Award, as part of the ceremonies at the annual Independence Bowl in Shreveport.^[3]

When he ran for mayor, Hanna had a home on Cross Lake, a vacation place in New Mexico, and a private airplane at his disposal. He did not seek reelection as mayor in 1982 and was succeeded by his fellow Democrat, John Brennan Hussey.

References