Rose DeShaw of Kingston remembers Doris Haddock, who died on March 9.
Doris Haddock was the guest speaker at a Raging Granny 'Unconvention' in 2004 in Rochester, N.Y., where she fit in as just another granny.
A bunch of us had gone over to one corner of the room during a break and began singing college drinking songs. We were in the middle of The Lady In Red, and I was adding all the little asides passed down orally at my western university when a voice that had been singing lustily beside me, stopped and said, "I never heard THAT line before!"
Granny D behaved like just one of the gang of older female activists that had gathered to ponder ladylike protest and dissent. But when she spoke later, talking about spending time with Jimmy Carter, she had an air of authority that was undeniable. She was intensely interested in the personal history of every woman present.
I followed her around that day lapping it up, managing to take tea and then lunch with her. She wasn't much of an eater, but as a listener she had no parallel, honestly caught up in the stories of the lives around her.
There was a feeling about her that something important was happening here, something you would never hear again. Even the New York Times recognized this, leaving out that usual hollow accolade, 'feisty,' mistakenly applied to any older woman.
When you were with her, there was a feeling of being in at the beginning of something profound, being able to reach out and touch greatness.