LEBANON — Terri Dudley, who played a central role in Lebanon politics for more than 50 years, died on Monday. She was 92.
Known for both her charm and her resolve, the Lebanon native served as a city councilor, mayor and state legislator during a tenure in city government that started in 1958.
Dudley also was a trailblazer in the business community as the first female advertising executive at a daily newspaper in New England, the first female president of the Lebanon Chamber of Commerce and the first woman to lead the Rotary Club of Lebanon. At the heart of all her endeavors was a commitment to her hometown, Dudley’s longtime friend Nancy Merrill said.
“She loved, just loved everything about Lebanon,” Merrill, herself a former Lebanon mayor who now works for the city of Claremont, said in a phone interview Tuesday.
On top of her connection to Lebanon leaders, Dudley was a familiar face in the city’s neighborhoods, where she knew families going back generations, Merrill said.
“Honestly, she knew everybody and every kid was wonderful,” Merrill said. “She never had a bad thing to say.”
Dudley played a pivotal part in Lebanon’s transformation from a small, rural mill town to becoming the hub of the Upper Valley.
As a young Valley News reporter in the late 1950s, she showed up with another reporter to copy tax assessment records at what was then town hall, days before a referendum on whether Lebanon should switch from a town to a city form of government.
However, Dudley and her colleague were thrown out of town hall by powerful Selectman Joe Perley. Some credited the resulting stories about the lack of transparency with swinging the vote in favor of a city form of government.
Dudley, who worked at the Valley News for 37 years, went on to become a columnist at the paper and later led the advertising department. (After she retired from the paper but remained active in city politics, she was known to pay a visit to the newsroom to participate in an NCAA basketball bracket pool).
She entered city government for the first time in 1958 as a ward clerk and led Lebanon’s juvenile court diversion program between 1976 and 1994.
“She served on everything,” said Paul Boucher, the former executive director of the Lebanon Chamber of Commerce who recalled both her outgoing personality and her commitment to civic life.
She also served on the boards of United Way, LISTEN, Lebanon College, the Upper Valley Credit Union and Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital.
When she wasn’t volunteering, Dudley was helping to raise her children. Dudley and her husband Roger, who were married for 72 years, had three children and raised five foster children. In 2014, she told the Lebanon Times that rearing a family was her greatest accomplishment.
In 1990, Dudley was elected to the City Council, where she then served off and on for the next two decades.
Former Lebanon Mayor Patrick Hayes said Dudley brought compassion and common sense to the role. She also became known as an advocate for West Lebanon, her longtime home.
“She was always an advocate for West Lebanon, trying to keep that vibrant part of Lebanon alive,” Hayes said, adding that her long-term goal was to better connect the two sides of town. For her part, Dudley said she always considered herself a lifelong resident of the city of Lebanon.
Her advocacy was commemorated in 2009 when the Legislature passed a bill naming the bridge over the Mascoma River on Route 4 between Miracle Mile and Seminary Hill the Terri Dudley Bridge.
The bridge has become a de facto link between Lebanon and West Lebanon, connecting the two parts of the city.
“This is symbolic of the work that she’s done,” then-state Rep. Laurie Harding, the bridge-naming bill’s co-sponsor, said at the time. “Terri certainly has been very instrumental in reminding people that we’re not two different communities anymore.”
Dudley’s service extended to the Legislature, where she served three terms as a Republican representing Lebanon in the House, starting in 1999.
Former Rep. Ralph Akins, who served alongside Dudley, said she was “calm, collected and thoughtful.” He added that Dudley was known for researching issues ahead of important votes, contributing to her reputation as a “reliable and reasonable” member of the Republican caucus.
While she was conservative, Dudley supported measures to support the state’s least fortunate residents, Akins said. He recalled a bill that sought to make it easier for seniors to qualify for tax exemptions. Dudley quickly threw her support behind the effort, suggesting language to strengthen it, Akins said.
“She just seemed to be a very caring person,” he said. “She tried to think of things she could do to make others have a better life.”
Dudley later said she attempted to bring a nonpartisan approach to her work in Concord.
“Regardless of the party you belong to, you’re elected by the people,” she told the Valley News in 2013. “They’re not all Republicans, they’re not all Democrats. When you represent someone, you’re supposed to represent everyone.”
Dudley retired from the Legislature in 2005 and stepped down from the City Council in 2009. However, she continued to keep a toe in Lebanon politics.
State Sen. Sue Prentiss, D-Lebanon, said Dudley was a mentor when she ran for City Council in 2007, even though the two were opponents.
Prentiss lost that race but when she did eventually succeed Dudley on the council in 2009, she said, the former mayor was always available to offer advice about meeting agendas, preparing for debates and keeping the needs of West Lebanon in mind.
“She was that West Lebanon voice,” Prentiss said, adding that advocacy oftentimes extended outside the neighborhood. “She gave a lot of time to the city. It was her passion.”
Dudley also continued to host her weekend talk show, “Sunday Mornings with Terri Dudley” on WTSL in West Lebanon, until her retirement from radio in 2013.
After departing the station, she called the Upper Valley “the best place on Earth to live.”
“You always feel welcome here regardless of your lot in life, and friendships last for a lifetime,” Dudley wrote in a letter to the Valley News, thanking the community.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@ vnews.com or 603-727-3223.