Florence Hales Laird

Florence Hales Laird passed away peacefully March 9, 2012 in Ocean Springs. She was born on April 18, 1921 in Washington, D.C. In her younger years her hobbies were tennis, piano, and dancing to the music of the big bands. Florence graduated from Roosevelt High in 1939 and worked as a secretary for the National Geographic Society headquartered in D.C. She told us of strolling over to the White House to sit on the steps while enjoying her lunch breaks. She was a city girl, but that changed when she decided to help her fellow man and see the world at the same time. She joined the American Red Cross in 1948 and was sent to the tiny Pacific island of Guam where she fell in love with Henry Laird, Sr., a Coastal Mississippian stationed there in the Navy. They married in 1949. From their fifty-eight year marriage were born three children: Henry Laird, Jr. of Pass Christian, Bertha Morgan of Ocean Springs, and George Laird of New Orleans; five grandchildren (Margie Dean of Clinton, Eddie Morgan of Ocean Springs, Hunter Laird of Charleston, S.C., Henry Morgan of Ocean Springs, and Anna Laird of New Iberia, LA); and three great- grandchildren. Always known for her wit and resolve, Florence was a homemaker who directed all her love, energy, and attention to her family. She sacrificed personal ambition for the welfare of her husband and children and had little time for anything other than nurturing her family. Florence and Henry, Sr.’s ashes will be scattered on a Mississippi barrier island where they spent many happy hours together and at Rock Creek Cemetery at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., Florence’s earliest church. Their earthly remains now return to two places they long knew and loved. The funeral service will be at 11:00 a.m., March 17, 2012 at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ocean Springs with visitation beforehand at 10:00 a.m. in the Great Room of the parish hall. Florence would have preferred donations to St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ocean Springs in lieu of flowers. The Ocean Springs Chapel of Bradford O'Keefe Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. .