Doris "Granny D" Haddock, a 90-year-old great-grandmother who walked across the country to draw attention to the issue of national campaign finance reform, will discuss her memoir, Granny D: Walking Across America in My 9oth Year, Wednesday, April 25, at 7:30 pm in the Art Building's Gamble Auditorium.

On February 29, 2000, Granny D completed her 3,200-mile, fourteen-month trek from Los Angles to Washington, D.C. She walked though 105-degree deserts and blinding blizzards, despite arthritis and emphysema. Along the way, she became known for her galvanizing and impassioned speeches.

On her journey, Granny D, a retired executive secretary and great-grandmother of twelve, kept a diary, tracking the progress of her walk and recalling events in her life and the insights they have given her. Granny D: Walking Across America in My 9oth Year, written with government reformer Dennis Burke, who accompanied Haddock on her walk, celebrates an exuberant life filled with love, activism, and adventure—from writing one-woman feminist plays in the 1930s, to stopping nuclear testing near an Eskimo fishing village in 1960, to Granny D's current crusade. Threaded thoughout is the Yankee spirit of her beloved hometown of Dublin/Petersborough, New Hampshire.

This event is sponsored by the Odyssey Bookshop, MHC's Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, the Franklin/Hampshire chapter of CPPAX, the Coalition for Fair Elections, the Alliance for Democracy, and Massachusetts Voters for Clean Elections.