Freda "Keli" Douglass

1/11/1940 – 11/6/2025

Our beloved mother, Freda (Keli) Smith Douglass passed away on November 6, 2025 at Mt. View Community in Ossipee, NH. She was 85.

Born in North Conway, NH to Myrtle (Jackie) Illsley and Everett Mitchell Smith, she graduated from Bartlett High School in 1957 and earned her RN at the Laconia School of Nursing graduating in 1960. On December 20, 1961, she married the love of her life, Kenneth Douglass, spending nearly 35 years together before he passed. Family includes daughter Jennifer Douglass of Gilbert, AZ, daughter Hilary (Douglass) Justice and son-in-law Jeff Justice of St. Petersburg, FL, daughter Lauren (Douglass) Haughey and son-in-law Jeff Haughey of Sparta, TN, and granddaughter, Rachel Laytham and husband, Christopher Blake Laytham of Bentonville, AR.

Keli led a rich and colorful professional and personal life including decades as an operating room nurse at both Huggins Hospital in Wolfeboro, NH and Memorial Hospital in North Conway, NH. In 2003, she accompanied a team of nurses and surgeons from Stanford’s Operation Rainbow performing surgeries on children with profound orthopedic deformities in remote areas of Nicaragua, forever impacting the quality of life for these children.

Keli had a passion for acting, and she showcased her talents with the Wolfeboro Playhouse in numerous performances in both leading and supporting roles. Thornton’s Wilder’s grandson once said after a performance that Keli had “given him chills.” Keli is also fondly remembered in Wolfeboro for being crowned the town’s first Carnival Queen in 1961, as well as for her culinary and baking skills from dinner parties to annual homemade gingerbread houses of her own design for each of her daughter’s elementary school classes at Christmas time.

The family wishes to express their gratitude to Lakes Region VNA and Hospice and Mt. View Community for  their exceptional care of Keli in her final days. If so moved, the family requests donations be made to them in lieu of flowers.

The memorial service is set for May 9, 2026, with visiting hours 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm immediately followed by the service and private family burial. Lord Funeral Home is handling the arrangements.

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