Lorraine B. Earle

Lorraine Bernice Bernadette Bergeron Sylvia Earle aka Lorraine Earle aka Rainy aka Mama Cupcakes aka LoLo (age 68 of Hull, MA) passed away peacefully at home on January 29th after a long battle with COPD and lung cancer.  She was surrounded by family holding her hands, while playing and singing her favorite songs as she passed.  Days leading up to this, as much pain as Lorraine was in, she would light up like a slot machine when her grandchildren visited.

Lorraine was a hippie, a feminist, an artist, an adventurer, and a selfless person who was born and raised on Martha’s Vineyard to a single mother after her French Canadian father—Eugene Bergeron—left her Portuguese American mother—Hilda Antunes Bergeron at a young age.  As kids, Lorraine and her siblings grew up on Welfare, working multiple jobs to keep the lights on.  This experience shaped her work ethic, imagination, compassion, and unique perspective. During the summers when the steamships of tourists arrived—Lorraine, Donna, Eugene, and Linda would dive for coins in Vineyard Haven, singing, “How ‘bout a coin? How ‘bout a coin down here!”—filling their mouths up with money that tourists would flick off of the ships.

As a young teenager trying to help at home, she held a myriad of jobs on Martha’s Vineyard: Harborview Hotel, Vineyard Nursing Home, Vineyard Villa Hotel, Mansion House, The Black Dog Café breakfast cook, Edgartown Gift and Garden, Rosebay Gardens, and Edgartown Deli to name a few.  She graduated in 1974 from Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School.  She graduated from Fisher College in 1985 with an Associates in Business Management.

In between those years she went on road trips, lived in Allston, and worked at Suffolk Superior Courthouse while she put herself through college.  She worked at Sally & Fitch law firm in Boston as an office manager and paralegal for more than two decades before leaving to work with her son’s T-shirt brand, Johnny Cupcakes, as the CFO for two decades.  As a team, Lorraine and her children opened hundreds of Johnny Cupcakes pop-up shops, won several retail awards, and were able to work with dozens of charities.  Lorraine loved her children and often said she was so proud she could feel her heart beating outside of her chest.

At her prime she was on top of the world, being active on her candlepin bowling league, the garden club, the Hull artists group, teaching seashell art to kids and adults, winning various awards at craft fairs, clothing the homeless, attending concerts, winning costume contests year after year at Halloween parties, traveling, kayaking, volunteering at Hull’s Sunset Point Camp, supporting the DJ Henry Dream Fund Gala was everything to her, and picking enough blueberries to fill her freezer up for the year so that she could make her famous blueberry pancakes.  She loved life.  She was life.  And she was a light for so many people.

“Being Kind is Free” is what Lorraine would often say.  Remember this and please spread kindness on her behalf.  Remember Lorraine when you see seashells and sea glass, when you hear birds chirp, when you listen to reggae music, when you wear your Johnny Cupcakes T-shirt, when you eat blueberries or pancakes or blueberry pancakes, when you’re eating Portuguese fried dough or kale soup, when you’re at the beach, when you’re celebrating holidays — especially Christmas and Halloween.

Lorraine Earle is survived by her partner Patrick Averill, her son John Earle and his wife Katie Freketic and their daughters Austin and Stevie, and her daughter Linsay Schauwecker and her husband Nick Schauwecker and their son Hudson.  Her siblings Donna Montesion and husband Edward, Eugene Bergeron and his wife Beverly, and Linda Vancour and her husband Steve.  She is survived by several nieces, nephews, cousins, and the father of her children, Mike Earle.

SERVICES:  Friday February 16th 4:20pm-8pm (or until finished) is Lorraine’s wake which will be at Pyne Keohane Funeral Home on 21 Emerald Street in Hingham, MA.  Saturday February 17th 10am is Lorraine’s Mass which will be at Saint Ann’s Church (also known as St. Mary of the Assumption Parish) on 208 Samoset Avenue in Hull, MA.  Life celebration party to follow. See www.Keohane.com for directions and online condolences. 

In lieu of flowers, you can make donation(s) on Lorraine Earle’s behalf to: DJ Henry Dream Fund – https://djdreamfund.charityproud.org/Donate – and/or Sunset Point Camp – https://www.ccab.org/ways-to-give/donate/