Harry Connick Sr.: The Singing District Attorney

The Singing District Attorney

For thirty years, New Orleans had a district attorney who spent his nights singing in French Quarter jazz clubs. Harry Connick Sr. was one of those only-in-New-Orleans figures—a man who prosecuted criminals by day and crooned standards by night, who co-founded a Mardi Gras krewe and raised a son who became one of the most famous entertainers in the world. His life was a New Orleans story in every possible way, including the parts that were complicated.

Connick was born in Mobile, Alabama, in 1926, but New Orleans claimed him early. His family moved to the city when he was two, and he never left. After serving in the Navy during World War II in the Pacific, he came home and built a career in law that would make him one of the most powerful men in the city for three decades.

He became Orleans Parish District Attorney in 1973, succeeding Jim Garrison—the man who had turned the DA's office into a circus with his Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories. Connick brought a different energy: professional, politically savvy, and durable. He held the office until 2003, a thirty-year tenure that made him a fixture of New Orleans civic life in the way that only certain figures in certain cities can be.

Time magazine gave him the nickname "The Singing District Attorney," and it stuck because it was perfect. Connick genuinely loved music and genuinely loved performing. He sang in French Quarter clubs with the same ease that he argued cases in court. In a city where music isn't a hobby but a way of life, having a DA who could carry a tune wasn't just charming—it was almost expected.

In 1993, Connick co-founded the Krewe of Orpheus, which quickly became one of the city's premier Mardi Gras organizations. The krewe was named after the mythological musician, naturally, and its parades became some of the most anticipated events of Carnival season. It was typical Connick—blurring the lines between civic duty and civic celebration in a way that only New Orleans allows.

His tenure as DA was not without serious controversy. Multiple cases from his office were later found to involve prosecutorial misconduct, including wrongful convictions that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. These cases raised hard questions about how justice was administered in New Orleans during the Connick era—questions that the city is still grappling with.

And then there was his son. Harry Connick Jr. grew up in this world—the son of a singing DA in the most musical city in America—and became a Grammy-winning musician, movie star, and television personality. The apple didn't fall far from the tree; it just landed on a much bigger stage.

Harry Connick Sr. died in January 2024 at ninety-seven, having lived long enough to see his city through Katrina, rebuild, and transform. He was a complicated figure in a complicated city—a man who held enormous power for an extraordinarily long time, who loved music and law in equal measure, and whose legacy includes both the krewe that lights up Lundi Gras and the legal questions that shadows can't quite cover.