DUBLIN — Doris “Granny D” Haddock, whose work on behalf of campaign finance reform in the last decade inspired a nation, passed away at her home in Dublin on Tuesday evening at the age of 100.

Perhaps best known for her walk across the country in 1999 and 2000 in support of campaign reform, a trek she began just before her 90th birthday, Haddock was also the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in 2004 and a spokesperson for public financing of election campaigns.

The news of her death led numerous political leaders of New Hampshire to issue statements in remembrance of Granny D.

Her Republican opponent in the 2004 Senate race, Sen. Judd Gregg, issued this statement Wednesday: “Her commitment to campaign finance reform truly stretched the length of our nation. Granny D’s involvement in New Hampshire politics will long be remembered.”

Gov. John Lynch’s statement reads, “Granny D proved to us all that one person really can make a difference. Granny D’s passion and commitment inspired tens of thousands of Americans to get involved and push for change to the campaign finance system.”

Haddock was born in Laconia in 1910, 10 years before women would get the right to vote. She attended Emerson College in Boston, Mass., for three years, where she studied theater, her spokesperson, Maude Salinger of Peterborough, said Wednesday. Haddock was kicked out of the school for marrying, Salinger said.

Haddock told the Ledger-Transcript in an interview in April of 2008 that she voted for the first time in 1930, shortly after she was married to James Haddock.

“I had just gotten married to a man who was quite liberal and I didn’t know anything about politics. He said vote for [Presidential candidate] Norman Thomas and I did,” Haddock said.

It wasn’t until the late 1990s, Haddock said, that she got interested in the money of politics, after reading an article about Common Cause, which had been backing campaign finance reform since its founding in 1970.

On Wednesday, her longtime friend Bonnie Riley, a resident of Francestown and Nelson, recalled that Haddock had gotten fellow members of the Tuesday Academy — a group of people who got together at Riley’s home to read and talk about issues of importance — to write letters to their representatives urging them to support campaign finance reform.

“She decided that wasn’t enough; she was going to walk across the country for the publicity of it,” Riley said.

She said Haddock got the idea from Peace Pilgrim, another woman who had walked on behalf of peace.

On Wednesday, Haddock’s son, Jim Haddock of Dublin, said that at first he didn’t support his mother’s idea to walk and had hoped she would give up the notion. He said he gave her 12 Herculean tasks, such as walking so many miles carrying 20 pounds of extra weight.

“Each task I gave her, hoping it would break her, she surmounted,” he said. That gave him no choice but to going along with her plan.

Her determination came from God, he said.

“Some people have it and some don’t. Those who do are kind of rare.”

Jim Haddock also accompanied his mother on the road during her campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2004.

On Wednesday, Haddock’s close friend of 25 years, Nancy Cayford, who walked with her for two weeks in Texas during her famous trek, said she remembers how much fun it was to be with Granny D.

“I think that she made it a charmed life, a great life. She went out and did it. She wasn’t born with great wealth or privilege, but she had attitude,” Cayford said. “She always had a cause.”

Cayford met Haddock at the Dublin Community Church, where Haddock had been very active up until the last 10 years, when her focus turned to campaign reform.

Haddock’s daughter-in-law, Libby Haddock, said Wednesday that Granny D moved to Dublin with her husband at about age 64 to be near family. Before that, the Haddocks lived in Manchester, where Granny D worked at a shoe factory doing design work, pricing and executive secretary tasks.

In her last days, Libby said, Granny D had become very focused on organizing her files and continued to labor on behalf of public support of elections on the state level, something she hoped could serve as a model for other states.

Haddock worked closely with the N.H. Commission to Study the Feasibility of Public Funding of State Election Campaigns, which the Granny D Bill, House Bill 794, had called for in 2008. The commissioners proposed a voluntary publicly funded elections system and a pilot program covering six senate races over three election cycles.

In January of 2009, Haddock told the Ledger-Transcript that she supported the commission’s findings, but worried that the proposed sources of funding would be snatched away in difficult times. Despite the financial obstacles, Haddock said that publicly funded campaigns are still the way to go.

Salinger said, “She felt that money and politics was the central issue for this democracy.”

Everything Haddock did in the last decade of her life was dedicated to returning democracy to the people, Salinger said, and addressing the issue of money and politics.

“She believed in the power of one because her power of one old woman, as she called herself, was so great,” said Salinger.

Carol Wyndham of Peterborough, a supporter and assistant to Haddock, said Wednesday that Granny D, Ruth Meyer of Keene and she had gone to lunch on Sunday. They hadn’t taken the day off from their usual work organizing Haddock’s public appearances and travel plans, Wyndham said.

Wyndham said Haddock recited lines from her one-woman plays she used to perform for Woman’s Clubs throughout New Hampshire and also talked briefly about women’s suffrage.

She said Haddock and Dennis Burke of Arizona had been working on another book. The two had previously collaborated on a book about Haddock’s walk across the U.S.

“He finished it the day she passed away,” Wyndham said, referring to Burke. “She made it to 100. That’s what I think she was aiming for.”

A memorial service will be held Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Dublin Community Church.