Former St. Bernard state judge and state legislator Manny Fernandez dies Saturday in St. Bernard Hospital

Manuel “Manny” Fernandez, retired St. Bernard Parish state 34th Judicial District Court Judge for 12 years and former state legislator, died early Saturday morning at St. Bernard Parish Hospital. He was 71.

Fernandez had entered the hospital on Thursday, Feb 6. Family members were making funeral arrangements Saturday at St. Bernard Memorial.

Fernandez served in all three branches of state government: legislative, executive and judicial. He served as Division B Judge in St. Bernard for 12 years, from 2001 until his retirement June 1, 2013. He was 104th District state representative from 1976 to 1988 and also was an assistant chief of staff to former Gov. Buddy Roemer.

“It was just time for me to move on,” he said after spending his last day as a sitting judge on May 31. “One of the things that I think is most important is knowing when it is time to move on, when it is time to say goodbye.”

In May 2001, Mr. Fernandez beat Sharon Williams by only 158 votes in a runoff to finish out the year left in Judge David Gorbaty’s term after Gorbaty was elected to an appeals court position. At that time, the judgeship race was called the closest in St. Bernard history.

But about 16 months later in October 2002, Fernandez easily won the seat, receiving more than 5,000 votes over his closest rival.

Last summer, Fernandez said that as a legislator he was most proud of helping to rewrite the law so that wives had equal management rights of community property.