Nicy Cornelia (Hemstock) Ladd, 99, died September 19, 2019 at the Merrimack County Nursing Home in Boscawen, after a lengthy period of profound dementia.

Nicy, named for a maternal aunt & a grandmother, was born January 31,1920 in Canton, South Dakota, the 13 pound baby of Cornelius Thomas Hemstock and Martha Melissa Demaris Martina Keturah Louisa Howell Hemstock. The cowboy & the schoolteacher moved their family to a farm on Flaghole Road in Andover in the 1920’s. Nicy attended school in Andover, skipping two elementary grades, and in Franklin.

Nicy worked at a variety of jobs, living in Concord, Laconia, & Franklin; Cleveland, Ohio, and Portland, Maine. She was briefly married to C. Roscoe Jones, ending in divorce. While waitressing at the Daniel Webster Inn in West Franklin she met Hugh A. Ladd. They were married in 1951 living in Franklin for 53 years until his death. She was a cancer survivor since 1966.

A Christian, saved by faith, she also spent her life in service to others. Nicy was a member of the Baptist Church of Franklin, serving as Sunday School teacher & Superintendent and as a long time Deaconess. For many years she was the secretary of the Twin Rivers Food Pantry. She spent many years volunteering with the Twin Rivers Emergency Medical Services District and with the New Hampshire Region 4 EMS council as a consumer representative.

In the 1960s Nicy became increasingly involved with the local Kearsarge Chapter of the American Red Cross, volunteering in their Service to Military Families, blood drives, & Disaster Relief programs, and as a first aid instructor. She managed the Volunteers Thrift Shop, which benefited the Red Cross. She then served for many years as the Executive Secretary. After retirement she continued responding to local house fires to bring immediate relief and assistance well into her 80s.

For her service she was named Franklin’s “Citizen of the Year” in 1978. She was further recognized when Mayor Wickens proclaimed November 28,1988 as “Nicy Ladd Day” in the city and again when Mayor Palfrey proclaimed March 16, 2004 as “Nicy Ladd Day”.

She was predeceased by her parents, her siblings Joseph Hemstock in 1973 and Carolyn Allen in 2014, her daughter-in-law Betsy Ladd in 2015, and her daughter Carolyn Mae Ladd in 1952. She is survived by her son Thomas Allen Ladd of Whitefield, New Hampshire, her nieces Helen Drew of Concord, Cornelia Patch of Northboro, Massachusetts, Beatrice Thackeray of Epsom, nephew Douglas Boyd of Franklin, and many grand nieces/nephews, and cousins.

Memorial donations may be made to the Twin Rivers Interfaith Food Pantry, 2 Central Street, Franklin.

Her funeral will be at the Baptist Church of Franklin, 21 Church Street in Franklin on Tuesday, September 24, 2019 at 10:00AM. Burial will follow at the Franklin Cemetery.