Loretta S. Eaton

1926 - 2017

Born: 18 January 1926. Deceased: 2 April 2017. A native of Baltimore, Loretta was the third of the four daughters of Loretta Mary Philbin and Edward August Strauff. She is survived by her son Charles A. Munn III, her sisters Mary Lina, Anne, and Joan, and by her five grandchildren, Charlotte, Alex, Paulina, Julia, and Peter. Charles III and the five grandchildren all were delighted to visit Loretta extremely often to spend quality time with her throughout her life, including up to the end, which was very peaceful. Loretta is a graduate of Notre Dame of Maryland Collegiate Institute for Young Ladies ("Notre Dame"), of Baltimore, and Wilson College in Pennsylvania. In her senior year at Wilson, she was elected "the May Queen", meaning the most beautiful woman in her graduating class. She had both brains and beauty. Of the various suitors who asked for her hand, the winner was Charles A. Munn, Jr., 12 years her senior and the dashing scion of the Munn family of Palm Beach, Florida. The young couple suffered the death of their two-year-old daughter, Mary Paul, in 1953, and were blessed with a son, Charles III, in 1954. That same year her husband was diagnosed with ALS, and after a three-year battle with the disease, Charles Jr. died in 1957. In 1963, Loretta remarried the prominent Baltimore obstetrician, W. Drummond Eaton, and he brought to the marriage his teenage son, Drum Jr. Drum senior passed in 1995. Loretta was an avid sportswoman, becoming an extremely accomplished spear-fisherwoman, golfer, tennis player and skier, her perennial favorite slopes being Zürs, Austria and Vail, Colorado. In addition to participating in sports, Loretta also became a loyal fan of the Baltimore Colts and never missed a home game. For 15 years, Loretta was the proud owner of the famous champion show Dalmatian dog named "Long Last Ripcord". She was active in the Greenspring Valley chapter of the Garden Club of America, where she witnessed her then-12-year-old birder son give live lectures about birds to her club and other clubs in the Baltimore area. She was an active board member of the Valleys Planning Council, which acts to preserve open space in green areas north of Baltimore. Additionally, she served on the board of the National Audubon Society, one of the world's oldest and most-effective conservation groups. Largely as a result of Loretta's lifelong love of nature and wildlife, her son, Charles, went on to graduate first in biology from Princeton, obtained a Master's Degree and PhD from Oxford and Princeton, respectively, and then became one of the world's leading conservation biologists. Charles's work has led directly to the creation of 15 million acres of new protected areas in the Amazon rainforest, an area equivalent in size to all the national parks of the western U.S. It truly could be said that "they broke the mold" when they made Loretta. She was quite a character in many meanings of the word, and we all miss her terribly and wish her peace. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated at St. Charles Borromeo Church, Pikesville on Saturday, April 8 at 12 PM. Interment to follow at Druid Ridge Cemetery. www.ruckfuneralhomes.com