William T. "Bill" Hanna
| Bill Hanna | |
|---|---|
| Mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana | |
|
In office November 27, 1978 – December 31, 1982 |
|
| Preceded by | Calhoun Allen (under commission form of government) |
| Succeeded by | John Brennan Hussey (under mayor-council form of government) |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
William Thomas Hanna, Jr. September 26, 1930 Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | December 17, 2016 (aged 86) Shreveport, Louisiana |
| Resting place | Forest Park East Cemetery in Shreveport |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Marvelle Warren Hanna |
| Children | 4 |
| Alma mater |
C. E. Byrd High School Louisiana State University |
| Occupation | Former automobile dealer |
William Thomas "Bill" Hanna, Jr. (September 26, 1930 – December 17, 2016), was a Ford Motor Company automobile dealer who served a single term from 1978 to 1982 as the Democratic mayor of Shreveport in Caddo Parish in northwestern Louisiana.
Born in Kansas City, Missouri, to William Hanna, Sr., and the former Irma Belle Adams, he came to Shreveport with his parents at the age of three months. He graduated in 1947 from C. E. Byrd High School in Shreveport and enrolled at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. There he became a lifelong Tigers partisan. He played on the LSU baseball team from 1949 to 1951. After graduation, he played shortstop on several minor league teams before he returned to Shreveport to joing his father in the automobile business.
Hanna was a president of the Louisiana Automobile Dealers Association, which in 1977 named him the "Automobile Dealer of the Year". The company was well known for the popular sales slogan, "You Canna Ford a Hanna Ford," which was intended to attract moderate-income buyers. The company no longer exists.
On his election as mayor, Hanna defeated in a runoff contest his fellow Democrat Don Hathaway, the last of Shreveport's municipal public works commissioners who in 1980 began a long stint as the sheriff of Caddo Parish. Also in the mayoral 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 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, and he did not run for a second term in 1982.
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