Public memorial planned Sunday for New Hampshire campaign finance activist ‘Granny D’

Public memorial planned for NH activist ‘Granny D’

CONCORD, N.H. — Doris “Granny D” Haddock turned a mother’s critical remark into a springboard for a lifetime of adventure.

Haddock was seven when she overheard her mother say, “She’s not like the others. She’s different. Sometimes I wonder if she’s mine at all, like I found her in a basket on my front doorstep.”

From that moment until her death Tuesday at age 100, Haddock embraced the idea of being different. As a child, she devoured adventure books, imagining herself a princess in the pink granite turret of her local library. She was 89 when she walked across the country to promote campaign finance reform, and 94 when she ran for U.S. Senate against a popular and powerful Republican incumbent.

“That overheard conversation, and that uncertainty helped me to become well read and adventurous,” she wrote in one of her memoirs. “I can’t imagine how boring I might have otherwise become to others and to myself.”

Haddock died of chronic respiratory illness at her home in Dublin, N.H. A public memorial service will be held Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Dublin Community Church, said Jim Haddock, who accompanied his mother on her cross-country journey.

In 1999 and 2000, Haddock walked 3,200 miles in 14 months to draw attention to campaign finance reform. Wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat and carrying a bright yellow flag, she covered about 10 miles a day through deserts, over mountains and on snowy roads where she strapped on skis. During a day’s walk in California’s Mojave Desert, elation gave way to doubts.

“Chasing my hat again through cacti, the idea of walking across the United States at my age seemed a less than perfect idea. I was being foolish: The country is too big for an old New Hampshire woman with a bad back and arthritis and emphysema and parched lips and a splintered hat,” she wrote. “So many people, even in my own family, had said I wouldn’t get fifty miles. I would just think of that and let myself get a little angry. That would give me a boost.”

Haddock, a retired shoe company secretary, became interested in campaign finance reform after the defeat of the first attempt of Sens. John McCain and Russ Feingold to remove unregulated “soft” money from campaigns in 1995. Inspiration for her cross-country trek came from the Tuesday Morning Academy, a group of women who meet every Tuesday at 8 a.m. to do ballet exercises and discuss world affairs.

Bonnie Riley, who founded the group, said Haddock initially had the women circulate petitions and send them to members of Congress.

“That wasn’t very effective, so she hit upon the idea of walking across the country as a very old lady on a mission, and it worked very well,” Riley said Wednesday. “She was remarkable. A really remarkable woman.”

Jim Haddock said his mother wasn’t a great cook or housekeeper but she “lived all her life with quite a bit of gusto” and made his childhood an adventure. He recalled his parents teaching him and his sister to swim in a granite quarry in Manchester.

“The shallow water was filled with broken glass,” he said. “My father would wait below and I’d jump off the cliff. My family always had adventure in their hearts, I guess.”

Condolences have poured in from both state and federal officials. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., who defeated Haddock 66-34 percent in 2004, said Haddock demonstrated the extraordinary impact one person can have on the political process.

“Granny D’s involvement in New Hampshire politics will long be remembered,” he said. “Her gracious approach to the Senate election set a good example for all of us who are engaged in political contests.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said New Hampshire has lost its most tireless advocate.

“Doris ‘Granny D’ Haddock set a powerful example for generations to come about passion, dedication, and the ability to make a difference. She will be truly missed,” Shaheen said.

In recent years, Haddock founded a group that pushed the state Legislature to create the Citizen Funded Election Task Force and attended the task force’s weekly meetings. She also was working on a new book, “My Bohemian Century,” which focuses on her college days and her Senate campaign and is expected to be published this spring, said Dennis Burke, who co-wrote the latest book with Haddock, along with her earlier books.

“Doris embodied American democracy; she believed it is not something we have, but something we do,” he said Wednesday. “If we want to ever be truly proud of our government again, from its city halls to the halls of Congress, we have to continue to see the future through her eyes and with the measure of her high expectations for her country.”