Harry Connick Will Retire

After 29 years and five terms as district attorney of Orleans Parish (New Orleans), Harry Connick, Sr., a longtime NDAA member, is calling it quits at the end of this year.

Connick, the longest serving DA in New Orleans’s history, made his announcement on his 76th birthday at a crowded press conference in his office, surrounded by members of his family, staff, political friends and several judges who once worked as his assistants.

Before making his announcement, Connick called his famous musician son, Harry Connick, Jr., who was touring with his orchestra and told him, “I think my bones are telling me it’s time to quit.”

He said his son replied, “It’s not your bones. It’s your voice,” a reference to his father’s sideline singing career, which he continues, appearing regularly in the lounge of a downtown New Orleans hotel.

Harry Connick, Sr., had left an assistant U.S. attorney’s job and was in private practice when he challenged legendary New Orleans DA Jim Garrison in 1969 and lost. Four years later he defeated Garrison by 2,221 votes.

When Connick took over the DA’s office, he found 7,500 cases on the docket, some dating back a decade. Under Connick’s direction, jury trials reached unprecedented numbers.

New Orleans political consultant Jim Carvin told The Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans, “He took an office that was in shambles and turned it into a good district attorney’s office. Garrison was an absolute tyrant. Harry Connick never misused the power of his office.”

The Times-Picayune said, “In his own way, Harry Connick became just as much a political giant as (Jim) Garrison had once been, His endorsement in any race, not only judgeships, remains one of the city’s most desirable. His nephew, Paul Connick, Jr., had his support when he was elected Jefferson Parish district attorney in 1996.” Seven of the present New Orleans District Criminal Court judges once worked for DA Connick, as have more than 700 lawyers.

Connick met his late wife, Anna Livingston Connick, when he was working for the Army Corps of Engineers in Morocco. They were married in Tangier and settled in New Orleans to start their careers and a family, working their way through college and law school by operating a record shop.

“It was in the early 1950s,” he recalled in a 1992 interview for the then NDAA Bulletin, and a great time to be in the music business, because hi-fi, stereo sound and 12-inch LPs were coming into the market.” Harry, Jr., who later was to become one of the nation’s most popular musicians, no doubt picked up his love of music from his father.

Despite his heavy schedule as DA, Harry Connick, Sr., managed to take time off, usually weekends, to travel to wherever his famous son and his band were performing and more often than not, ending up on the stage singing with the band.

The 1992 profile described one such visit:

“It’s the Lunt Fontaine Theater on Broadway—THE Broadway in Midtown Manhattan—and Harry Connick, Jr. and his big band, one of show business’s biggest current attractions, are wowing the enthusiastic capacity audience with their robust renditions of the jazz and swing classics of the ’30s and ’40s.

“As the applause for one of their numbers dies down, the 24-year-old Connick brings on the stage a slim, pleasant-faced, white-haired man. As he sits down at the piano, he gives his band the cue, and Harry Connick, Sr., 66, district attorney of New Orleans, proceeds to sing “When You’re Smiling” in his soft tenor, accompanied by one of the best bands around.

“As they say in the business, he gets a good hand.”

DA Connick will be a hard act to follow, but the list of possible contenders for his job is large and growing. One of them is a close friend, outgoing Mayor Marc Morial. Asked if he would endorse Morial, Connick jokingly said, “I’m going to ask to be his first assistant.”

What’s he going to do in retirement?

Harry Connick, Sr. says he wants to spend more time with his family, especially his grandchildren. And there’s still that singing gig in a downtown hotel lounge, as well as the standing invitation to sing with the Harry Connick, Jr. band.

Some of the material in this article is based on a story in The Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans.