Haney Berlin Conner, the second son of William Franklin Conner and Laura Adelaide McGill, was born in Chattanooga on May 4, 1882. The house in which he was born (on the corner of Fifth and Market Streets) burned when he was about one year old and on this same site a two-story brick building known as the Wisdom House and later as the Conner Hotel was erected.
Haney's father enlisted in the First Tennessee Cavalry in 1863 at the age of 18. After being captured at the Battle of Monmouth in Virginia and having been imprisoned at the Jeffersonville, Indiana Federal Prison, he returned to Birchwood and farmed for one year. In 1880 he married the daughter of Hamilton County's Justice of the Peace and the couple moved into and began operating the Conner Hotel. Their three sons, Esquire McGill, Haney Berlin, and John W. were born while they were living at the Hotel.
The family later moved to a home on "Dutchtown Road" on the east side of Missionary Ridge, later known as Brainerd. By the time William Franklin Conner died in 1898, all three boys were grown and had left home. Some time later, Laura Conner, his widow moved to Lookout Mountain.
Haney attended schools in Chattanooga and Baylor's University School, from which he won a scholarship to Washington and Lee University. He attended that university in Lexington, VA from 1901-1903, working during the summer at Natural Bridge. From 1903-1904 he attended the University of Nashville, graduating with BA and BS degrees. He then completed a course at George Peabody Teachers College. When he took advantage of a notice on the bulletin board that there was a teaching job available at St. Joseph, LA High School, his Mother was horrified at the thought of her son going down to that alligator infested swampland! A short while after teaching there, he became principal of the school. In 1906 he became cashier in the Bank of Waterproof, LA and it was while there that he met and married Margaret Estelle Graves. In 1910 they moved to Vidalia, LA where he founded and managed a one-man bank, The Concordia Bank and Trust. In Vidalia their three daughters were born. In 1916, Haney was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives; he was re-elected in 1920 and again in 1924.
In 1922 Margaret and Haney and their three girls (Louise, Ida Mae, and Martha Helen) moved from Taconey Plantation in Vidalia to Baton Rouge, where he had been appointed assistant Supervisor of Public Accounts for the State (he was a CPA). He served in that capacity until 1925 when he resigned to become Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Louisiana, Free and Accepted Masons.
During his year as Grand Master he laid the cornerstones for many buildings, including the Masonic Temple in New Orleans, the Masonic Home for Children in Alexandria, LA and his own church (First United Methodist) in Baton Rouge.
In 1926 his son, Haney Berlin Conner, Jr. was born.
In 1928 H.B. Sr. was elected State Treasurer and served a four year term. A most significant occurrence during his term was the signing of the bonds to erect a new state capitol building. His name is on the cornerstone of that 32 story edifice and also on a bronze plaque as you enter the Rotunda of the capitol.
Since Louisiana law would not allow the Treasurer to succeed himself, Haney went to work in 1932 as a bank examiner with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and later as a traveling auditor of the WPA. In 1936 he was employed as a Project Auditor's Assistant for the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, headquartered Atlanta, Georgia. During all of this time, his family remained in Baton Rouge where his daughters were attending Louisiana State University.
After Haney's arch-enemy Huey P. Long was assassinated in 1937, Haney returned to Louisiana as a State Bank Examiner. Actually, it was due to the fact that while Treasurer, Haney had "called the Governor's hand" on many of Long's spending procedures that caused Huey Long to seek revenge by making it impossible for Haney to find employment anywhere in the state when his term ended.
Conner, as he was called, helped organize a new bank in Donaldsonsville and served as Executive Vice-President from 1947-51, when he left to become Senior State Bank Examiner under the new Governor, Bob Kennon. He remained at that job until he retired in 1957.
During his retirement, he remained active in Masonic and Easter Star activities. He and his wife loved to entertain. They sang in the church choir and even composed the words and music for an opening and closing ode which is still used today by many Eastern Star chapters throughout Louisiana. In addition to his having been the Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Masonic Lodge, Haney had also served as Grand Patron of the Order of Eastern Star for Louisiana. His wife was later the Grand Matron of the State Eastern Star.
Haney Berlin Conner, Sr. died December 14, 1966 at the age of 84 and is buried at Roselawn Memorial Park in Baton Rouge. Margaret died in 1970, eleven years after she and Haney had celebrated their Golden wedding anniversary. H.B. Jr. passed away in October 1992. The three daughters survived their father and still reside in Baton Rouge. They too are proud of their Conner ancestry, as was their father, and have fond memories of summer vacations spent at their Grandmother Conner's on Lookout Mountain.
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