Both Bill and Polly were students at Daphne State Normal School in Baldwin County, Alabama, at the time of their marriage.
His wife was a principal and teacher in Tuscaloosa County, providing the means for her husband to complete his graduate degree in 1949.
In June 1951 Bill accepted an associate professorship at the University of Texas at Austin, and he moved his family there.
William Hadley underwent open heart surgery in 1973 and retired on total disability in June, 1974.
Bill and Polly moved to their retirement home in Magnolia Springs, Alabama, on July 1, 1974, where he lived until his death on June 29, 1992.