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Constance “Connie” Ann Raney

Loudon, NH – Constance “Connie” Ann Raney (Wells), age 89, of Loudon NH, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, April 28th, 2026, surrounded by her husband, children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren at her bedside.

Connie was born in Concord, NH on January 19th, 1937, to the late Guy and Gladys Wells. She was the beloved wife of Robert “Bob” Raney for 63 wonderful years, with whom she shared three children, eight grandchildren, and nine great grandchildren with. She was a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother.

Connie grew up on a working farm in Loudon, NH with her family. She then worked as a hairdresser at the Merrimack County Nursing Home where she retired after 21 years of service. In her free time, Connie enjoyed adventures, sightseeing, snowmobiling, and camping with her husband, friends, and family – most notably her time spent in the White Mountains of NH, and Totem Pole Campground on Lake Ossipee. She took her grandchildren fishing, looked forward to beach days with her family, and enjoyed basking in the sun on her porch. Connie was a lover of animals from wildlife, to farm animals, to dogs and cats. She also loved music – singing, and dancing; doing puzzles; watching Hallmark movies and Boston sports; and shopping. She was a socializer, and looked forward to events like Loudon Old Home Day, her great grandchildren’s birthday parties, and other family gatherings and holidays, especially Christmas. Connie was a dedicated member of the Loudon “Young At Heart” group, and also volunteered on the Loudon Cate Van, a service that helped to connect community members with essential services. Connie was a radiant, cheerful spirit with a knack for being silly and making people laugh, especially her family, who will miss her deeply.

In addition to her loving husband, Connie leaves behind her children, Scott Raney of Hopkinton, NH, Michelle Raney Benson and husband Peter Benson of Hopkinton, NH, and Bryant Raney and wife Denise Walker Raney of Loudon, NH; her grandchildren, Kaylee Raney Henriksen and husband Joshua Henriksen of Hopkinton, NH, Kelsie Benson Stuart and husband Collin Stuart of Acton, ME, Kendall Benson of South Portland, ME, Courtney Benson Karanasios and husband Tyler Karanasios of Hopkinton, NH, Peter Scott Benson II and wife Emma Benson of Hopkinton, NH, Hayden Benson and wife Nicole Benson of Jackson, WY, Steven Benson of Hopkinton NH, and Jacob Raney of Lake Tahoe; her great grandchildren Jaela Brown, Sylus Henriksen, Lincoln Stuart, Fletcher Stuart, Calvin Stuart, Wells Karanasios, Adley Benson, Raney Benson, and Sawyer Benson; many nieces and nephews; and her cherished dog, Duke. As Connie would always say, “Keep waving.”

Connie was predeceased by her parents and her four brothers: Omar “Smokey” Cochran, Russell Cochran, Edward Wells, and Arthur Wells.

A graveside service will be held on Thursday, May 7th at 10:00 am at the New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery, 110 Daniel Webster Hwy, Boscawen, NH. The Veterans Cemetery requests that guests arrive 15 minutes early. A private celebration of life will take place at the home of Connie and Bob following the ceremony.

Click here to sign the guest book or honor their memory with flowers, donations, or other heartfelt tributes

A Republican state lawmaker in New Hampshire partnered with a notorious German Holocaust denier in an effort to insert Holocaust denial into the state’s public education guidelines.

Rep. Matt Sabourin dit Choinière successfully pushed the New Hampshire Commission on Holocaust and Genocide Education to hear testimony from Germar Rudolf, a German chemist who has previously been deported from the United States and served prison time in his home country for propagating Holocaust denial.

Two other Holocaust deniers also testified before the state House as a result of Sabourin dit Choinière’s efforts, including a man who grew up Jewish who has led protests outside a Michigan synagogue weekly for more than two decades. 

Sabourin dit Choinière’s antics were first reported Wednesday by NPR. But the push actually took place in public view, during a livestreamed meeting of the state House’s Executive Departments and Administration Committee in January.

During the meeting, Sabourin dit Choinière testified that he had visited Dachau and seen a gas chamber, then learned that no one was ever gassed at Dachau. (The Dachau historic site says the chamber’s lack of use “remains unexplained.” More than 40,000 people died at Dachau.)

“This was the first doubt in my mind that over time led towards a revisionist thinking about the Holocaust,” Sabourin dit Choinière said before explaining that he was relieved to have discovered the “Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust,” a group that produced a 54-volume set of books that he offered to the committee.

“Holocaust historical revision revisionism as a science does not deny that Jews were persecuted or deprived of their civil rights or deported or herded into ghettos. It does not deny that many were killed, but it does seek to learn why, how and when they died. And it seeks to separate the truth from the fiction,” he said.

“This is vitally important knowledge for the Holocaust and Genocide Education Commission’s curriculum development,” he continued. “If we are going to have Holocaust and Genocide Education taught in New Hampshire public schools, which I think it should be, it needs to be accurate and reliable.”

The Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust is run by Rudolf, whose publications have claimed that Zyklon B was never used in the Auschwitz gas chambers, defended notorious Holocaust denier David Irving and cast doubt on photographic evidence of concentration camps.

Few people attended the public meeting, which mostly focused on the state retirement system. Among those in attendance were three men who testified: Rudolf and two members of his group. 

“I have under my belt 35 years of research, organizing research, conducting and publishing research, of forensic and archival nature on the Holocaust question,” Rudolf said during his testimony.

The other two men both came in from Michigan: Henry Herskovitz, an Ann Arbor man who for decades has led weekly protests outside a synagogue’s Shabbat services that have incorporated Holocaust denial; and David Skrbina, a former professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn who has published numerous Holocaust-denial books under a pseudonym. 

“As a historical event of great importance, we must examine all sides of this topic with an open mind,” Skrbina told the committee. “Exaggerations, lies, gross errors, and physical impossibilities must be identified and rooted out if we are to learn from this event and to do justice to its many victims.”

During the meeting, the testimony elicited little pushback. One state lawmaker indicated sympathy to the Holocaust deniers’ testimony. 

“I’ve been there. I’ve seen all of that. I’ve felt it when I walked around. And I think it’s a travesty that we’re trying to hide the truth about what’s happened in the past, and I want to thank you all for bringing this to the committee today, and I think all students everywhere should know what happened,” GOP state Rep. Susan DeRoy told the panel following Rudolf and Herskovitz’s testimony. “So my question would be, why do they want to cover this up?” (The chair shot down the line of questioning, saying, “It’s not an appropriate question.” DeRoy did not immediately reply to a request for comment.)

Sabourin dit Choinière also introduced an amendment that would have added a member of Rudolf’s extremist group to the commission, which oversees Holocaust education that is required in New Hampshire schools and is preparing to update curriculum materials.

The amendment failed. But the fact that it was made and entertained at all was deeply concerning to New Hampshire state representative Loren Selig, a Jewish Democrat and Holocaust commission member.

“Shocked would be an understatement,” Selig told NPR about the moment her colleague introduced it. “I could barely speak.”

Unrelated to his Holocaust denial, Rudolf also has a criminal record, having been convicted in Pennsylvania, where he lives, of indecent exposure after being arrested for public nudity at a playground.

Sabourin dit Choinière’s antics come as the Republican Party grapples with internal tensions over antisemitism, as party leaders have grown divided by figures such as Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes who have minimized the Holocaust or amplified deniers. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz lamented the rise of antisemitism in the party to the Republican Jewish Coalition conference earlier this year, while Vice President JD Vance has said he does not want to draw lines that would exclude such voices from the party.

A Republican candidate for state office rejected Sabourin dit Choinière’s endorsement of him following NPR’s reporting. The conservative group Americans For Prosperity, which has endorsed Sabourin dit Choinière in the past, condemned antisemitism in a statement to NPR.

Prior to NPR’s report, Sabourin dit Choinière’s Holocaust commission moves attracted little public attention. A New Hampshire progressive group in January called on House Speaker Sherman Packard to strip Sabourin dit Choinière of his committee assignments, which according to the House website he has retained.

“Promoting Holocaust denial and antisemitic conspiracy theories is incompatible with public service,” a co-founder of the Kent Street Coalition wrote in an open letter published in a nonprofit news site. “Rep. Sabourin dit Choinière should be removed from his committee assignments as a matter of principle and accountability.”

Holocaust education commissions have been the sites of controversy in other states. The South Carolina equivalent last year faced internal division over its chair’s decision to muzzle a local rabbi’s speech tying the Holocaust to modern U.S. policies. Texas’s own commission recently advised on a controversial proposed statewide required reading list, and Texas’s governor also recently appointed a Christian pro-Israel activist to the commission.

Sabourin dit Choinière isn’t the only member of New Hampshire’s state house to have made antisemitic comments related to the Holocaust this year. Another Republican, state Rep. Travis Corcoran, faced disciplinary hearings this week after tweeting a “final solution” joke aimed at a Jewish Democratic colleague.