Posted at 1:38 a.m., Saturday, December 9, 2006
Last black World War I veteran dies
Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. — Moses Hardy, believed to be the second-oldest man in the world and the last black veteran of World War I, died Thursday. He was 113.
Hardy died at a nursing home, said Evelyn Davis, 68, one of his eight children. He would have been 114 on Jan. 6.
Robert Young, senior consultant for gerontology for Guinness World Records, said research by his group, National Public Radio and others had been unable to locate any other surviving black WWI veterans. He said only about 10 to 12 American veterans of that war remain.
Young said Hardy had been No. 6 on Guinness' list of the world's oldest people. He said Elizabeth Bolden, 116, of Memphis, Tenn., is believed to be the oldest person, while the oldest man on the list is Emiliano Mercado del Toro, 115, of Puerto Rico.
Young said Hardy was sent to France during the war and apparently saw some combat. Census records showed Hardy's father was born in the 1830s and that both of his parents were slaves
