Career
She was one of the first two women to serve in the New Jersey Legislature, elected in 1920 as a Republican. Laird trained as a nurse in Newark, New Jersey, graduating from Newark City Hospital (now The University Hospital) in 1895. Laird became actively involved in women"s suffrage organizations.
She campaigned for the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, which secured women"s suffrage in 1920.
In 1920, Laird was one of two women, along with Jennie C. Van Ness, designated by the Essex County Republican Party to run on the twelve-person slate for the New Jersey General Assembly. Also elected on the Essex County slate was Walter G. Alexander, the first African American to serve in the legislature.
Laird served two terms in the Assembly. She was active in establishing the state"s juvenile court law, and she supported legislation for equal salaries for women employed by the state government.
She declined to run for a third term because of the Assembly"s late hours.
Laird remained active in local politics, serving as president of the Newark Women"s Republican Club from 1926 to 1932. She died in 1968 at the age of 97, in a nursing home in Neptune, New Jersey.