Lorraine Hanson Carle

CARLE, Lorraine Hanson Age 90, a life-long Brookline resident, died at her beloved home on July 7, 2010. Mrs. Carle's death was sudden, the proximate cause diagnosed as congestive heart failure; the true cause was of a broken heart, Mrs. Carle having lost her husband of 61 years only 54 days before. Mrs. Carle considered her life's work threefold: to nurture and challenge her family members, and especially her children, so that they would always use the limits of their abilities; to maintain a home that combined heritage, rigor, and gentleness, so that all who entered would feel that they were safe, and that they might dare great things when they left her presence; and to build upon her heritage of nation-making frontiersmen, flinty Yankees, and proper Bostonians. Mrs. Carle defined herself through the home. It was graceful and timeless, and a place where manners were proofs of respect and of civilization. She had the same look in her eyes as the family portraits on the walls: of men and women who were the first whites to settle the Mohawk Valley in 1710, fought in the French and Indian War, and lived among the Iroquois League; fought as captains and spies in the Revolutionary War; of soldiers and farmers who fought in the Black Hawk War, the Seminole War, and were the first to settle Illinois; of the abolitionist forebear who fought against slavery for seven long years in Bleeding Kansas, from 1854-1861, and then four more years as a cavalry sergeant for the Union; of ancestors who took prairie schooners across the plains and were among the first prospectors and settlers in Colorado Territory; of her father who served as a medic in World War I, and of a Marine uncle with whom she grew up who bled in the final push in 1918 to expel the Germans from France; of the State Street financier who made a fortune in the Roaring Twenties, and lost it all in a day on Black Friday 1929; of the young woman who welcomed countless Allied servicemen to her home during World War II, to encourage them and remind them, so long as she was there, they were not alone; and of the devoted wife who supported and participated in her husband's battles to improve school standards, and champion a fair chance for everyone, be they Yankee or immigrant. Mrs. Carle was blessed with a smiling and vivacious personality that won the hearts and devotion of everyone she met. She graduated from Brookline High School in 1939, and attended Choate Finishing School in Boston. As a child she studied dance under the world famous Isadora Duncan, until one day in irritation Duncan struck Lorraine for clumsiness. Lorraine's mother removed Lorraine from the class, remarking that the renowned dancer was "obviously not good enough for my daughter." A stunning beauty, she was voted Miss Brookline in 1940. She played the romantic lead in two small movies as a result of her crown, had dozens of uniformed suitors court and pine after her, her name-the "Sweet Lorraine"-was painted on the fuselages of Allied bombers, and her photograph hung as a pin-up on the bulkheads of ships floating and sailing from steaming Leyte Gulf to the misty Murmansk Run. She played the ingenue several nights a week in plays put on for Allied servicemen in the Theatre District throughout World War II. As one would expect, many of the servicemen became infatuated with her when they saw her on stage. "I was a terrible actress," she recalled, laughing. "Just awful. But it didn't matter. The guys were all lonely, and I had curves in the right places." Once she started a family, she encouraged her sons to excel in all they did, taught them to play fair, wiped their noses when they had had a fight, and urged them to make sure that they always won. In many ways, Mrs. Carle and Brookline were one and the same. Generations of the family had lived, and she was, literally, born and raised in the center of town, across the street from the Town Hall and next door to the Police Station, only moving in 1939 when the county seized the family home by eminent domain to build what became the Norfolk County Court House. She ever after referred to the court house as being on "my land." She served many years on the PTA, the Brookline Historical Society, was curator of Brookline's Putterham School House Museum, and was active in many charitable drives for decades, combining her love of American heritage and education, and devotion to the community. A fine athlete, she routinely played catcher as her semi-professional pitcher husband pitched to their sons-handling with a laugh and aplomb the one pitch in ten her husband threw which was literally a rotten orange-and then throwing it back. She hit hundreds of tennis balls at a time to her sons, running them ragged from corner to corner, and then afterward biked with them for an ice cream. She always provided the center to which all returned, whether at the court house, behind the plate, on the base line, or in her cherished home. She is survived by her sons Lawrence, of New London, New Hampshire, and Glenn, of Bethesda, Maryland, and four grandchildren, Olivia and Claudia, of New London, and Spencer and Margaux, of Bethesda, Maryland, and one sister, Joyce Erickson, of Monroe, Connecticut. Her last words were typical, devoted to her family, expressing her love, and offering what strength she had: she praised her son, saying "I am so proud of you." But it is we who are proud, and whose hearts are broken at the loss of such a selfless and happy woman, whose best lesson was her life of kindness and grace to all, strength of character no matter what the trial, and devotion to the epic of America, from her forebears' lives with the Iroquois in the Mohawk Valley, to "her" court house in "her" town, Brookline, Massachusetts. The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Special Giving, 520 8th Ave., 7th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or www.aspca.org or to the National Wildlife Federation, 11100 Wildlife Center Dr., Reston, VA. 20190-5362 or www.nwf.org Visiting hours will occur Tuesday, July 13, 2010 from 11:30-1:00, at the First Parish Unitarian Church, 382 Walnut Street, Brookline. A service will follow at the church from 1:00-2:00. Interment Walnut Hills Cemetery, Brookline. A reception will be held for family and friends from 3:00-4:30 at the family home, 54 Cypress St., Brookline. For guestbook and directions www.bellodeafuneralhome.com