JOHN. H. LADD

BELFAST – John Henry Ladd passed over Tuesday, July 18, 2006, in the house that he was born in 82 years ago on Dec. 5, 1923. His wife, Edith, who cared for him faithfully for the last three years, was at his bedside. His parents, Henry Benjamin and Katherine (Adams) Ladd, purchased the home 100 years ago. The Ladd family has lived in the Waldo County area since 1810. John completed his elementary education at the Head of the Tide School House and graduated from Crosby High School in 1941, where his sisters, Margaret and Virginia, were teachers. John enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps where he attained the rank of sergeant. He was sent to Europe as a radio operator/gunner on a B17 bomber in the 305th bomb group attached to the 8th Air Force. On Nov. 26, 1943, his airplane was shot down over Bremen, Germany. He spent his 20th and 21st birthdays as a POW in Germany and was not released until the end of World War II. The experience of World War II left a life-long, indelible impression on him. He once commented that no event ever matched combat with its’ intense emotions of excitement and fear. He received many medals and honors, including a Purple Heart, European African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, American Defense Medal, Honorable Service Prisoner of War Medal, Good Conduct Medal and several others. The Ladd family was privileged to see Gov. John Baldacci present John with his Purple Heart, 55 years after the war. On April 26, 1947, John married Edith Blethen in Belfast. They built a chicken farm on the Passagassawaukeag River, where they raised their four children. He started a logging company and, in 1965, went to work for the U.S. Postal Service, in the same building where his father was employed, and he retired in 1983. His true vocation was farming like his ancestors before him. John was an avid reader and life-long learner, having a vast knowledge of natural history and American history, particularly of the Civil War. He served on the Belfast City Council from 1954 to 1957 and was a member of the Phoenix Masonic Lodge, the Longshoreman, the Caterpillar club, the American Ex-Prisoners of War and the DAV Organization. If there is one word to describe John: it was “tough.” He was a survivor and knew how to soldier. John was predeceased by his grandson, Joshua Ladd; three brothers-in-law, Perry Blethen, Hugo Eckman and Burleigh Blethen; and two nephews, Robbie Otis and George Blethen. Surviving are his wife of 59 years, Edith B. Ladd; their four children, Marcia Ladd Spears and her husband, Geoff, Annette Ladd Williams and her partner, Jerry Cross, Daniel Ladd and his wife, Maureen and Samuel Ladd and his partner, Cheryl Cummings; two sisters, Margaret Eckman and her son, Henry Eckman and Virginia Otis and her husband, Bob, and their family; five grandchildren, Cassina Bilodeau and her husband, Steve, Kirstin Post and her husband, Shannon, Jacob Ladd and his wife, Wanda, Bridge Morse and her husband, Nick and Samantha Ladd; and seven great-grandchildren, Jacob and Ryan Bilodeau, Makylah and Josie Ladd, Alexandra and Joshua Ladd and Hunter Morse. He will also be missed by his extended family, including brothers and sisters-in-law and many nieces and nephews. A graveside service will be held 10 a.m. Saturday, July 22, at the North Belfast, The Head of The Tide, Cemetery, in Belfast, with the Rev. Charles Erb officiating. The family suggests memorial donations be made to Waldo County Hospital Home Health & Hospice, P.O. Box 287, Belfast, ME 04915. Arrangements are with the Laite Funeral Home, 9 Mountain St., Camden.