Hal Gremillion

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Armand Lazare Broussard Gremillion (born May 29, 1945) owns the Sadie Daily Mail and is a significant figure in the town, serving on the board of the hospital. He owns a considerable amount of land in the town.

• Hal is motivated by _____.
• Hal wants _____.
• Hal is challenged by _____.
• Hal will discover _____.

When Hal first learns that Cash is asking around about Verge, he panics, having convinced himself that he had successfully hidden that part of his life from everyone. Despite his panic, he pretends that there is not much to worry about, trying to maintain the composure he always presents to the world. As Cash makes progress, though, Hal takes increasingly aggressive action.

Biography

Early life

Hal was the only child of Josette (Broussard) and Lazare Gremillion, two members of founding families of Sadie. He grew up on his parents' substantial farm outside of town and always knew that he held a place of privilege. When Hal was young, Sadie was still in its heyday, growing like many small towns throughout the US.

After high school, Hal worked on his father's farm, intending on following his father's footsteps. However, in 1965, when he was 21, he enlisted in the Marines. He served a total of 13 months in Vietnam. During his time in Vietnam, he decided to become a writer, and after returning to the states and shifting into the reserves corp, he enrolled at LSU as a Journalism major.

After returning from Vietnam in 1967, Hal married his high school girlfriend, Eliza Macintire, whose family owned much of the pine lands in the region.

Professional life

He tried repeatedly to sell stories based on his time in Vietnam while enrolled in college but always without success. After graduating, and after not getting any other job offers, he accepted a position as a reporter with the Sadie Daily Mail, owned by Frances J. Poder, a longtime friend of Hal's father. While working as a reporter, he continued to write stories but still never had any success getting them published.

In 1982, after the retirement of longtime editor Edward "Sully" Sullivan, Hal was promoted to General Editor of the newspaper by Mr. Poder.

By the early 90s, the paper was struggling, even though it was the only local paper in the area. Concerned that the paper would be purchased by some outside interest following the death of Mr. Poder, Hal sold off a considerable amount of the land he had inherited from his parents, who had both recently died, as well as land Eliza had inherited from her parents, to purchase the newspaper and to update the systems and the press, believing Sadie to be on the verge of a rebirth.

By 2000, the paper was again struggling, and Hal had to lay off most of the staff he had hired in the 90s. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the newspaper did not print any editions for six months. During Hurricane Gustave in 2008, the newspaper offices and printer were destroyed by a fire. Hal, who was not very good with technology, converted the paper to an online format with the help of his youngest child, Mariette. Hal began writing most of the stories and pulling in content from other news sources. By this time, he himself did not need the money, but he felt committed to the maintaining a public record for Sadie.

Characteristics

Physical Appearance

Hal has always been a fairly large figure, having grown to his full height of six-foot-one by his freshman year in high school. He played both basketball and football for the Sadie Sawyers for all four years of high school.

For the past 20 years, Hal has worn a beard. Most recently, he has let it grow out longer and fuller. His hair, once a dirty blonde, is now a mixture of grey and blonde. This too, he has recently grown out longer, slicking it back in the mornings.

He wears the clothes of a gentleman farmer, even when working on a story or doing other newspaper business. His standard costume is a dress shirt, vest, jeans, and cowboy boots, even during the hottest weather.

Personality

Hal has always had a firm belief that any idea that comes to him is the right idea. If he believes something, it must be true. This way of thinking has driven him as a report, editor, and publisher. It has also made him see himself as the man who really runs Sadie and the only person who can save the town.

Hal is also a long-term planner. He takes small steps now in an effort to achieve an outcome far in the future. This belief came from his father the farmer who always had a ten- and twenty-year plan for the farm. Hal applied this to his relationship with Eliza, and he approached his efforts to take over the newspaper the same way. While it didn't work with his efforts to become a writer, it did work with his takeover of the newspaper.

Health

Despite having spent almost his entire life in Sadie, and despite having developed a smoking habit while in Vietnam (when he turned 50, he started smoking cigars), Hal is in exceptional health.

Plot Synopsis

Get It All Back

During the late 80s and early 90s, Hal believed Sadie to be on the verge of a rebirth. He felt certain that by the turn of the century, the small milltown would become a rustic extension of both New Orleans and Baton Rouge, an exurb for the upper class who did not want to live within the cities where they worked. He began to by up derelict properties without telling anyone, using the name of a corporation he established: Sunshine Properties. His plan was to demolish the houses, clean up the land, and hold onto it until the prices soared. By the mid-90s, he had purchased some 50 properties, draining much of his family's savings in the process. When the housing bubble burst in the late 90s, the values of his holdings collapsed, and he was left with a substantial collection of cheap land with run-down houses.

By the early 2000s, Hal was land-rich but cash-poor, owning a significant amount of worthless property. He had overused his funds to buy the properties and did not even have enough to have the buildings torn down. One night while visiting with Fred Wilson, whom he had known since childhood, and watching the projected path of Tropical Storm Bertha in August 2002, they remembered that three houses had burned down following Tropical Storm Allison the previous year. Hal had one property in particular that he always wanted to watch burn, an Acadian shack that was at least 40 years old. He brainstormed his plan with Wilson, who thought it was for a story Hal wanted to write. During the calm of Bertha, Hal left his farm, telling his wife he was going to drive around to assess any damage. Instead, he snuck to the old house and lit a fire at the electrical box. The house burned up quickly, as Hal had hoped it would, and as the storm intensified again, the fire department was unable to get there in time. The next day, Hal found the property covered with parts of the tin roof and the cinder block supports. Little else remained. There was no investigation into the cause of the fire. Hal paid his cousin Charly to clean up the property. That year, he burned down two more properties, one during TS Hannah; the other during Isidore.

For the next two years, Hal plotted how he could accomplish more in less time. One house per hurricane really was not enough to do what he needed in a few years. Meanwhile, the newspaper continued to struggle as the Internet quickly dominated. By March 2005, the paper was is serious financial crisis, and Hal was being encouraged to close it.

That spring after hearing the predications about the intensity of the hurricane season, he told his cousin Charly what he'd done in 2002 and how well it had worked, although much too slowly. Charly said he would need help and discussed a newcomer named Verge, someone few people in town knew. Hal and Charly worked out a plan. Verge, who struggled with complex thought, followed orders. With Cindy headed toward the region, Hal directed Charly to burn down two adjacent properties, following the same MO, starting a fire by the electrical box during as the eye of the storm passed through town. Frustrated as so many storms went north before crossing into the Gulf, Hal recognized the opportunity Katrina would give him. Although Charly resisted the plan at first, Hal offered enough cash to convince him to start five different fires during the storm. The plan again went off without a hitch, and Hal boldly started two other fires himself in the days following Katrina's landfall. However, he spent most of his time in the weeks after the storm, cleaning up the town, checking on people, bringing in gasoline and water, and writing stories that he couldn't publish because of the lack of electricity. A few months later, in recognition for his valiant efforts to help save Sadie, he was named king of the Krewe of Odin, Sadie's biggest and oldest Mardi Gras krewe.

2006 and 2007 were again fairly quite years for storms, and Hal devoted himself to rebuilding the capabilities of the newspaper. His plan had helped stabilize his finances considerably, but he still had a number of properties he needed to burn. Again, he put more money into the newspaper despite falling circulation and ad revenue.

By 2008, the newspaper was all but a lost cause. Hal watched the storms carefully and when it was clear that Gustav was headed for the region, he told Charly to burn down the newspaper building. He explained it would be the easiest fire, given the printing supplies stored throughout the warehouse. Again, Charly resisted, but Verge made enough threats this time to push the issue.