Richard Joel Laird, Sr. (July 4, 1939 – December 14, 2020) was an American politician who served in the

Alabama House of Representatives The Alabama State House of Representatives is the lower house of the Alabama Legislature, the state legislature of state of Alabama. The House is composed of 105 members representing an equal number of districts, with each constituency contai ...

from 1978 to 2014.

Biography

Laird was born in

Floyd County, Georgia Floyd County is a county located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 98,584. The county seat is Rome. Floyd County comprises the Rome, GA metropolitan statistical area. ...

, and graduated from Handley High School in

Roanoke, Alabama Roanoke is a city in Randolph County, Alabama, Randolph County, which is in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region of eastern Alabama, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 5,311, down from 6,074 in 2010 and 6 ...

. He was a businessman in Roanoke, Alabama, and in

Randolph County, Alabama Randolph County is a county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Alabama. "ACES Randolph County Office" (links/history), Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES), 2007, webpage: ACES-Randolph As of the 2020 census, the ...

. He served on the Roanoke City Council from 1972 to 1976. He died from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Carrollton, Georgia Carrollton, Georgia is a city in the northwest region of Georgia, about 45 miles (72 km) west of Atlanta near the Alabama state line. It is the county seat of Carroll County, which is included in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area. Historically, ...

, on December 14, 2020, at age 81, during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Georgia (U.S. state) The COVID-19 pandemic was first detected in the U.S. state of Georgia on March 2, 2020. The state's first death came ten days later on March 12. , there were 868,163 confirmed cases, 60,403 hospitalizations, and 17,214 deaths. All of Geo ...

References

1939 births 2020 deaths People from Roanoke, Alabama People from Rome, Georgia Businesspeople from Alabama Alabama city council members Democratic Party members of the Alabama House of Representatives Alabama Independents Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Georgia (U.S. state) {{Alabama-politician-stub