Doris Haddock

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Doris Haddock bigraphy, stories - Activists

Doris Haddock : biography

January 24, 1910 – March 9, 2010

Doris Haddock (January 24, 1910 – March 9, 2010) was an American political activist from New Hampshire. Haddock achieved national fame when, between the ages of 88 and 90, starting on January 1, 1999 and culminating on February 29, 2000, she walked over 3,200 miles across the continental United States to advocate for campaign finance reform. In 2004, she ran unsuccessfully as a Democratic challenger to incumbent Republican Judd Gregg for the U.S. Senate.

Haddock’s walk across the country followed a southern route and took more than a year to complete, starting on January 1, 1999, in southern California and ending in Washington D.C. on February 29, 2000.

Haddock requested a name change of her middle name to "Granny D," the name by which she had long been known. On August 19, 2004, Haddock’s request was officially granted by Judge John Maher during a hearing at the Cheshire County probate court.

Awards

Key to the city:

  • Austin, Texas
  • Birmingham, Alabama
  • Clarksburg, West Virginia
  • Davenport, Iowa
  • Ferndale, Michigan
  • Fort Worth, Texas
  • Keene, New Hampshire
  • Las Cruces, New Mexico
  • Lordsburg, New Mexico
  • Parker, Arizona
  • Parkersburg, West Virginia
  • Tombstone, Arizona
  • Upland, California

Personal life

Ethel Doris Rollins was born in Laconia, New Hampshire. She attended Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, for three years before marrying James Haddock. Emerson students were not allowed to marry at that time, so she was expelled. She was awarded an honorary degree in 2000 instead.

After marrying, she started a family; she had son, James Jr., and daughter Betty. She worked during the Great Depression and was employed for twenty years as an executive secretary in the offices of the BeeBee Shoe factory in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Granny D and her husband retired to Dublin, New Hampshire, in 1972. Her husband later developed Alzheimer’s disease, dying after a ten-year struggle with the illness. Her best friend Elizabeth died about that time, and that is whose hat she wears when photographed in public, and in which she walked across the nation in 1999 for Campaign Finance Reform.

Haddock had eight grandchildren—Heidi, Gillian, David Bradley, William, Alice, Joseph, Lawrence, and Raphael; and 16 great-grandchildren: Kyle, David, Jennie, Kendall, Peyton, Matthew, Richard, Grace, Justin, William, James, Beatrix, Tucker, Mathilda, Parker and Clay.

Haddock celebrated her 100th birthday on January 24, 2010, and died six weeks later on March 9, 2010, at her son’s home in Dublin, New Hampshire, following a bout with respiratory illness.

She was a lifelong Christian.http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/marchweb-only/46.0a.html

Post-election

Granny D wrote three books, all co-authored with Dennis Burke. In 2005, she gave the commencement speech at Hampshire College. She was awarded an honorary degree by Franklin Pierce College on October 21, 2002.

Granny D became the Democratic candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in New Hampshire during the 2004 election when the leading Democratic primary candidate left the race unexpectedly (days before the filing deadline), because of a campaign-finance scandal. Haddock was, at 94, one of the oldest major-party candidates to ever run for the U.S. Senate. True to her "clean elections" ideals, Haddock funded her late-entry campaign by accepting only modest private-citizen donations. She captured approximately 34 percent of the vote (221,549), losing to incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Judd Gregg, as he sought his third term. Gregg won about 66 percent (434,847) of the ballot.

In 2007 HBO released a documentary, Run Granny Run, directed by Marlo Poras, about Granny D’s 2004 Senate campaign.

She continued to be active in politics to the end of her life, and celebrated her 98th, 99th and 100th birthday by lobbying for campaign finance reform at the New Hampshire State House.