Obituary

Notable New Hampshire Deaths: Retired AP Bureau Chief Larry Laughlin

By Staff Report | October 4, 2024

BOB CHAREST photo

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Willa Cather (Dec. 7, 1876, to April 24, 1947) is buried in a corner of the Old Burying Ground, located behind the Jaffrey Meetinghouse, built in 1775 in Jaffrey Center. The historic graveyard also contains the grave of freed slave Amos Fortune and is on N.H.’s Black Heritage Trail. Cather’s grave sits facing the woods with the inscription facing away from the cemetery, making it hard to find. Cather was most famously known for her novel “My Antonia,” published in 1918. She won the Pulitzer in 1923 for “One of Ours.” A magazine editor at McClure's Magazine, she met her longtime companion, Edith Lewis, who was also an editor at McClure’s, and who died in 1972. Lewis was the executor of Cather's literary estate. They are buried together in Jaffrey. Cather was a resident of Nebraska for many years, and most of her literary work centered on pioneers in the American West, focusing on the strength and courage of frontier settlers.

InDepthNH.org scans the websites of New Hampshire funeral homes each week and selects at random some of our friends, relatives and neighbors to feature in this column. The people listed here passed away during the previous weeks and have some public or charitable connection to their community. InDepthNH.org is now offering obituaries through the Legacy.com service. We view this as part of our public service mission. Click here or on the Obituaries tab at the top of our home page to learn more. And if you know of someone from New Hampshire who should be featured in this column, please send your suggestions to NancyWestNews@gmail.com.

The Rev. Soterios Alexopoulos, 95, of Nashua, died Sept. 30, 2024. He was the retired priest of St. Philip Greek Orthodox Church in Nashua and last month celebrated 60 years of ordination. He served in Nashua
from 1972 to 1994, uniting two former Nashua communities and building into the brand-new St. Philip Greek Orthodox Church and Community Center at 500 W. Hollis St. He retired from active duty but was called back in 1995 to serve as part-time priest at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Clinton, Mass.,
serving for 16 years until the age of 83. He served in Lewiston, Maine, and was an instructor and examiner of the Greek language at Bates College. He served on several clerical boards including the Diocesan Council of the Interfaith Commission, serving as chairman in 1979. (Legacy.com)

Ann T. Carpenter, 100, of Pittsfield, died Sept. 27, 2024. She was a long-time member of the Pittsfield Women of Rotary and served as the recreational commissioner for the Pittsfield swimming pool. She volunteered as a Girl Scout and Cub Scout leader, and helped plan the Rotary’s annual Christmas tree lighting by the Pittsfield waterfall. She drove the Pittsfield High School baseball team to all their away games for four years since there was no money in the budget for a bus. (Waters Funeral Home)

Leon John Davidson, 93, of Atkinson, died Sept. 25, 2024. A veteran of the U.S. Air Force, he joined the family clothing business, The Andover Shop in Andover, Mass., then established Danton Realty Trust with a partner, and they sold property to Raytheon Technologies Corp. and remodeled many buildings in downtown Andover. He co-founded a golf community in Quechee, Vt., in 1969. In Provincetown, Mass., he developed a timeshare community called the Sand Castle. He also refurbished The Lookout Resort in Ogunquit, Maine, into condominiums. He helped develop South Down Shores and Long Bay in Laconia. (Rand-Wilson Funeral Home)

Sarah “Sally” G. Fish, 86, of Wolfeboro, died Sept. 27, 2024. She was an accomplished golfer who won multiple club and tournament champion and had 13 holes-in-one. She played at Kingswood Golf Club in Wolfeboro, Harbour Ridge Yacht and Country Club in Palm City, Fla., and Concord Country Club in Concord, Mass. She was a leader in the Women’s Golf Association of Massachusetts and co-founded the Concord Country Club’s Ladies Invitational Golf Tournament. (Connor-Healy Funeral Home and Cremation Center)

Lawrence M. Laughlin, 75, of Concord, died Sept. 30, 2024. He was bureau chief for Northern New England for The Associated Press, based in Concord, supervising AP news operations in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont for more than two decades. He was responsible for the Concord bureau’s coverage of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primaries in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008. He was a reporter for the Taunton (Mass.) Daily Gazette in 1971 and joined the Associated Press in 1976. He covered the trial of Rhode Island socialite Claus von Bülow, which he later described as the most interesting reporting assignment of his career. He was AP news editor for Virginia and was a member of the New England AP News Executives Association and a founding director of the New England First Amendment Coalition. (Bennett Funeral Home)

Claire S. Provencher, 95, of Manchester, died Sept. 26, 2024. She was president of the Ladies of Saint Anne at Ste. Marie Parish for 18 years, a member of Women of Mary, Heart to Heart at Ste. Marie, and Prime Time at Catholic Medical Center. She also coordinated Mercy Meals, was a eucharistic minister, a member of the Catholic War Veterans Auxiliary, American Legion Auxiliary, and Association Canado Americaine. She received the Catholic Woman of Excellence Award in 1999 and was presented the Auxiliary Officers award “God Country & Home” in 2012. (Legacy.com)

Peter William Zavorotny, 80, of Keene, died Sept. 28, 2024. A veteran of the Army National Guard, he served on the Hinsdale Budget Committee for 47 years. (Cheshire Family Funeral Chapel)

WORDS OF WISDOM: “There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.” – Washington Irving, American writer and diplomat, April 3, 1783, to Nov. 28, 1859