Charles Dunning

1921 - 2012

Charles Dunning, passed away at home on, December 28, 2012, in Cathedral City. His wife Lorraine was at his side. He was born August 9, 1921 to Charles Hiram Dunning and Adelaide Walker Dunning in New York City, N. Y. His dad died when he was three. His mother never remarried. Charles was 19 when he met 16 year old Lorraine Wilson. At 23 he joined the Navy Reserves for two years. Lorraine, at 21, joined the Cadet Nurse Core at Harlem Hospital for three years. With his mustering out pay, he learned to fly and bought a single engine plane. He worked for American Airlines, installing DC 3 engines. Free time flew his plane, played golf and rode horses in Central Park. January 12, 1947, Charles and Lorraine, Lois, her sister and Jeff Hadley got married. Don Wilson walked daughters down the aisle; cousin Father Belfield Hannibal heard their vows. Music was provided by Don Wilson Orchestra. The couples honeymooned at Lake Placid, New York. November 1948, Charles sold his plane and moved his family to California. He answered an ad for a two bedroom house for rent, saw it and bought it. In 1950 he got a salesman's job at East West Realty. He did well, got his Broker's license, and opened his own office. He was a charter member of the First African American Brokerage Firm in Los Angeles. 1960 he bought a plane and enjoyed flying to the mountains or Las Vegas. In his free time he took up golf. He was a member of the Alpine Ski Club, skiing at Mammoth and water skiing at Parker, Ariz. on the Colorado River. 1970 his mother passed, sold off properties, moved to Huntington Harbor with a boat dock and he bought 36 foot "Nauti'J". Free time was spent sailing or flying. My cousin, LeRoy came for a three week vacation. Charles took him flying to Big Bear and Las Vegas, which, helped him log more hours. Time to go back to New York. LeRoy and Charles agreed to use the Cessna. maps were checked and routes. They took off, gassed up at New Mexico, Texas, Missouri, Pennsylvania and landed at Kennedy's two and half days later. No Problems. Charles flew to California alone. In 1975 Charles sailed, "Naught-J" from Huntington Harbor to Long Beach Marina. Flew the Cessna from Hawthorne to Long Beach airport for storage. Due to a developing hearing problems he sold the Cessna. We always talked about camping in Europe and see the Eiffel Tower. In 1980 he bought a Voxwagon "PopTop", shipped it to England. After three weeks, we flew to England, picked up the van, road maps, Francs and got on the freeway (after crossing the English Channel) drove through France, saw the Eiffel Tower, then to Italy, Greece, Turkey and back tracked through Bulgaria, Germany, France, Spain to Gibraltar. We headed back to France camped a few days each in Cannes, Nice and Saint Tropez for "Bastille Day", July 14, 1982. We spent two months camping in St. Tropez. Charles saw a small sail boat bought it and moored it at the Cannes Marina and he raised the US flag up the mast. We made friends easily, spoke a "little" French. We stored our van with French friends and covered the boat in the marina for the winter. We went back to St. Tropez for three years and finally ran a for Sale ad in the local Long Beach Marina Paper. Two brothers bought the van and boat and was on a flight to France as soon as they could get their visas and passports in order. In 1990 Charles saw the Date Palm Country Club ad and moved us into a home on the golf course. During his last 22 years here, he enjoyed the parties, golfing buddies, made great friends. He was truly a Renaissance man. His zest for life, achieved most of his goals, in spite of all the road blocks. He never knew a stranger.