[Granville-Hough] Nancy Carol Hough, 1951-2020

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

 Our sister Nancy Carol Hough succumbed to aggressive metastatic cancer
 on June 9, 2020, in Rockville, MD.

 Born in the Panama Canal Zone in 1951, she graduated from Wakefield
 High School in Arlington, Virginia, in 1967, and from Carleton College,
 in Northfield, Minnesota, in 1971, majoring in Studio Art.

 For many years she served as a research assistant in genealogy and
 history for our father, Granville W. Hough, in Laguna Woods, CA.

 Nancy suffered from major depressive disorder throughout her adult life.
 After 2008, when she finally accepted ongoing treatment for this illness,
 her life became more stable and contented.  She enjoyed reading and
 social activities with her friend Jon Pine.

 From a conventional viewpoint her life was fairly difficult, but she
 always found a way to maximize her freedom and "she did it her way."

 She is survived by brother David Granville Hough and sister Bonny
 Hough Miller.     A memorial in Rockville will be held at a later date
 when such a gathering can be held safely.

 Here's our father's recollection of the circumstances of her birth -

Subject: 19 Feb 2009 - Nancy Hough born

    Our daughter Nancy Hough was born 19 Feb 1951 at Fort Clayton,
Canal Zone, now and also then in the Republic of Panama.  Of course,
we had to go to the US Embassy in Panama City to get her registered as
an American citizen, but that was after the trauma of the birthday.
    We were stationed at Fort Kobbe, aka Howard Air Force Base, which
was on the westward side of the Panama Canal.  The only hospital was on
the eastward side of the Canal at Fort Clayton.  So for births or any
other emergencies you had to get across the Canal at the only available
bridge on the ocean side of Miraflores Locks.   This was a drawbridge,
which was raised for  ships coming in from the Pacific  Ocean to transit
the Canal.  Of course, these ships had priority, and all land traffic
stopped while the ships passed through.  (Later the Bridge of the Americas
was built so land traffic was not affected by sea traffic.)
    All of us with pregnant wives had to worry about that bridge; and
indeed we did.  One of our master sergeants got to the bridge just as it
was raised and his wife gave birth, right there, during the time it took
to get a big ocean freighter from the ocean into the locks.  So we learned
that you delivered your own baby if you misjudged the ocean traffic.
    So Carol and I made plans.  We arranged for David to go spend time
with our neighbors, the Wainwrights, when Carol began to feel labor pangs.
Then we just hoped and prayed that we could get across the bridge before a
ship came in.  Carol began to feel those pains on 19 Feb and I hurriedly
got David's things and took him to the Wainwrights.  Then we set out
from Fort Kobbe to Fort Clayton.  We got to the bridge and it was open
for traffic.  What a relief!  When we cleared the drawbridge, we could
see a ship coming up the channel and soon we heard the warning whistle
blow that the drawbridge would open.  We had made it by several minutes.
Then we made out way to Fort Clayton.
    I got Carol checked into the hospital, and it seemed there was only
one doctor on duty and one nurse in the maternity ward.  Another soldier
came in with his pregnant wife, and the doctor was sure he would have
two births that night.  He put the two in adjacent rooms, and Carol
was first to go into labor.  He and the nurse took care of her, and
soon Nancy was born.  In the next room, no one was in attendance with
the soldier's wife, and she  also gave birth, successfully and alone.
Of course, there were other nurses on duty in other wards of the hospital,
and soon there was a flurry of activity taking care of the young mothers
and the new babies.
    I always suspected there was a typical cover-up as it would have
looked bad for any young doctor to have a record of someone getting to
his care and then having to give birth alone.  It may also have appeared
that he had given preference to the officer's wife and neglected the
soldier's wife; however, it just happened that Carol started delivery
first.  It could have been the other way around, and it might have been
tragic for Carol to give birth alone.
    So that is the way it happened.  Fortunately, Nancy was healthy,
wiry, and independent from the beginning.