Claire Ebel, who died from dementia earlier this month at the age of 79, was full of surprises.<\/p>\n
More than 30 years ago, she supported a cop who said he\u2019d been fired because of his affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan. Another time, the former executive director of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union \u2013 now the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire \u2013 rallied against a bill that sought to introduce harsher penalties for hate crimes.<\/p>\n
Ebel leaned hard left, valuing many progressive ideas and causes. Keeping LGBTQ students from going to their proms never sat well with her.<\/p>\n
Yet her passion for fair play, justice and consistency \u2013 three credos that were stamped on her heart \u2013 overrode her feelings on the KKK and the addition of harsher penalties for hate crimes or targeting victims based on social or racial demographics.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how she\u2019ll be remembered. By most.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe once told me, \u2018When I die, (the NHCLU) is going to use me as a fundraiser and just lay out my body,\u2019 \u201d said Malia Ebel of Sunapee, Claire\u2019s lone daughter. \u201cEveryone knows her as the former director, but that was just one chapter in her life. Most people think of her as just that person.\u201d <\/p>\n
Malia, the librarian at Colby-Sawyer College, knew only so much. She was crystal clear on some background. Important background. But other aspects of her mother\u2019s life were more private, like the key role Claire played during the presidential campaigns of Democrats Robert Kennedy in 1968 and George McGovern in \u201872. Or even the cancer she was fighting, news that surfaced after <\/em>she\u2019d already had surgery.<\/p>\n So many surprises, in fact, from a stoic New Englander who was born in Melrose, Mass., worked as a corporate lawyer in Boston, and kept a lot of things close to her vest. She was petite, yet outspoken.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was tough,\u201d Malia said, \u201cand she expected her kids to be tough, and sometimes that was hard.\u201d <\/p>\n She led the NHCLU for 31 years, retiring in 2013. Before she left, Claire made sure her organization remained independent from the bureaucratic and red-tape obstacles she anticipated from the national headquarters. She never spoke about it much.<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough she was the smartest person in the room, she did not come across that way,\u201d said family friend Jean Boulter of Bow. \u201cShe never much discussed what she was doing at work and what was happening in the world. She was private.\u201d <\/p>\n According to Malia, her mother sang like a bird and performed with a local folk group. She listened to hippie music during the 1960s and loved to sing\u00a0along with whatever was on the car radio. And she once backed up John Denver in Hawaii,\u00a0before he was John Denver.<\/p>\n She\u00a0loved dogs more than most, earned a Master\u2019s degree in economics and would be ecstatic these days with the play of the Boston Celtics, one of the favorites to win the NBA title.<\/p>\n She loved Larry Bird and his down-home, unpretentious ways, loved the \u201cugly sweater guy, not a tailored-suit guy.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWhen there were playoff games and she had to be somewhere, she would bring one of those little portable TVs,\u201d Malia continued. \u201cOne time I had a class trip to the beach and she brought her little TV because the Celtics were on.\u201d <\/p>\n Her pet peeve? Whining, which made her mad. She thought Ted Cruz, a Republican senator from Texas, whined a lot, and she never hid the fact that she did not like him.<\/p>\n Her political roles in a pair of presidential campaigns were invaluable, yet Malia and her brother, Brian, never really knew the details. Her ex-husband, Robert, who lives in Washington, D.C., accompanied her on both trips and kept a journal.<\/p>\n He wrote that Claire\u2019s role in Kennedy\u2019s campaign was vital. She worked at his headquarters in Indiana and was the only staffer not to give Kennedy a glowing report about his chances in that state\u2019s primary.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was an outlier,\u201d Robert Ebel wrote in his journal 54 years ago. Claire told Bobby Kennedy \u201cthat winning was far, far from a sure thing.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cShe did it all,\u201d Robert continued, \u201cfrom fundraising and opening and managing a headquarters in downtown Lafayette (Indiana) to organizing door-to-door-to-door canvassing of the entire county.\u201d <\/p>\n Kennedy\u2019s assassination two months later, in June of \u201868, had a profound impact on Claire. \u201cShe was really devastated by his death,\u201d Malia said. \u201cShe thought he was America\u2019s last chance to be equal and fair.\u201d <\/p>\n Of course, Claire never mentioned the inner workings of the campaign to anyone. She never let on how important her job was. At least not right away.<\/p>\n \u201cI was really surprised about her work on the Kennedy campaign,\u201d Malia said.<\/p>\n Years later, Claire took the reins of the NHCLU and began building her reputation.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are not many non-lawyers who understand the legal system and constitution as well as Claire did,\u201d said former Executive Council member Andru Volinsky, now a professor at Franklin Pierce University. \u201cShe did the Legislative work almost by herself.\u201d <\/p>\n Added Devon Chaffee, the current director of the NHCLU, \u201cFor more than 30 years, Claire Ebel fearlessly and passionately defended the civil liberties of every Granite Stater \u2014 something we are immensely thankful for each day.\u201d <\/p>\n In later years, Claire mentioned her fear of dementia. She had seen her mother destroyed by it, and told her children that if she began showing signs, take her out back and shoot her.<\/p>\n Those signs began about four years ago. Claire hated going to doctors, but had no choice this time. Asked to name some animals, as many as she could, during testing, Claire answered birds and dogs and \u201cmany others.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cShe was still trying to cover it up,\u201d Malia said.<\/p>\n Eventually, Claire forgot names, failed to recognize friends and family, and grew angry at her son, Brian, who moved here from California two years ago to help care for her. She died on April 8. She got her wish, dying at home with loved ones by her side.<\/p>\n There was also the breast cancer episode back in 2004, perhaps the best example of Claire\u2019s tendency to keep things to herself.<\/p>\n Ten weeks after her diagnosis, she had surgery and still nobody knew. This was a shocker that no one saw coming.<\/p>\n Two weeks later was Thanksgiving. Claire needed help opening a window. That seemed odd to Malia.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d Malia said she asked her mother.<\/p>\n Told that Claire had cancer and had already undergone surgery, Malia responded, \u201cDid you plan to ever tell me?\u201d\u201cNot if I\u2019d been able to open that window,\u201d said Claire.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd she’d prepared a Thanksgiving turkey that morning, before I’d gotten there,\u201d Malia said this week. \u201cIt was as if nothing was \u00a0wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n