For the Liberty City community, former State Rep. Roy Hardemon was a fierce and passionate Miami lawmaker, a lifelong advocate who fought relentlessly until his last breath. He was the man who stood in county and city chambers demanding overdue investment in the streets that raised him. But to his children, he was simply “daddy,” the man who never missed a birthday and always showed up.

When her car ran out of gas on I-95, Hardemon’s daughter Gloria Maestre remembers calling her father. He was on his way to a meeting, she said, but the moment he heard she was stranded, he turned the car around.

“In no time, he was there to help me,” she said, standing outside of Richardson Funeral Home on Friday. “That’s just who he was. If we needed him, he came.”

Roy Hardemon was born and raised in Mi

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