| Born
in St. Louis, Missouri on the 3rd of June
1918, Clarence was the son of Clarence L.
Lane who had been born in Vincennes, Indiana
in 1884 and had married Mary Jeanette Moore
in 1916. Little is known of his father except
that he had previously been married and it is
believed he may have had a son by the name of
Claude. Raised
by his mother after his father left them on
their own, Clarence was living at a boarding
house when he fell in love "at first
sight." The woman who had captured
his heart was Theresa Laratta, the beautiful
daughter of Southern Italian immigrants who
had come to St. Louis from Calabria, Italy in
the nineteen twenties.
Despite both
of their mother's misgivings, the two married
not long after meeting and had a daughter the
following year whom they affectionately named
after his mother, but whom all called
Jeanne.
She was to be
their only child as Clarence, like his own
father, was not much of a family man and
would come and go out of their lives. He was
a lover of literature and poetry and did pass
these same things on to his daughter whom he
did adore and had hoped would go to college;
but after his divorce from Theresa the family
moved to Arizona and Jeanne married young and
raised a family.
Clarence lived
most of his life in St. Louis and never
remarried. At the time of his death in 1966,
it was said that he still carried a picture
of his beloved Theresa.
|
