Oliver Hardy wounded at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862 and was a recruiting officer for Company K, 16th Georgia Regiment. The elder Oliver Hardy assisted his father in running the vestiges of the family cotton plantation following the Civil War. He then bought a share in a retail business and was elected full-time Tax Collector for Columbia County, Georgia. Hardy's mother Emily Norvell was the daughter of Thomas Benjamin Norvell and Mary Freeman, descended from Captain Hugh Norvell of Williamsburg, Virginia who arrived in Virginia before 1635. The elder Hardy and Norvell married March 12, 1890; it was her
Oliver Hardy heart attack and stroke from which he never recovered. Hardy suffered a mild heart attack in May 1954, and he began looking after his health for the first time in his life. He lost more than 150 pounds in a few months, which completely changed his appearance. Letters written by Laurel refer to Hardy having terminal cancer, and some have thought that this was the real reason for Hardy's rapid weight loss. Both men were heavy smokers; Hal Roach said that they were a couple of "freight train smoke stacks". Hardy suffered a major stroke on September 14, 1956 which