Lee C. LaForte

This is the way the world ends,

 Not with a bang but a whimper.

– T.S. Eliot

On September 12, Lee (Casillo) LaForte passed away. For 47 years, Lee shopped, worked, attended church, and socialized in her adopted hometown of Newtown. Her husband, Archie LaForte, brought her north from Derby as he installed himself as the town barber on Church Hill Road. But for Lee, Newtown was the end of a journey that started far away from the rolling Connecticut countryside.

Lee’s journey began in a small mountainous village in central Italy called Montefalcone. In a small apartment above a dressmaker’s shop, Lee took her first breaths in her newly widowed mother’s arms; it was June 24, 1915. For the first six years of Lee’s life she lived with her mother and was provided for by relatives and the wonderful townspeople of this quiet village. But as was with many others, the lure of America was strong. So Lee sailed with her mother across the Atlantic, arriving at Boston Harbor in the early spring of 1921.

Relatives met the pair in Boston and brought them to Meriden. But tragedy struck again; Lee’s mother died, leaving her 12-year-old daughter to be raised by relatives. An orphan but never alone, Lee became a sister to her Meriden cousins. A good student and a 4-foot 11-inch forward on the basketball team, she graduated from Meriden High School in 1934 and took a job selling shoes in Bridgeport and fitted many a family in Thom McCann finery until a swarthy sailor from Derby swept her off her feet.

On a sunny afternoon in October 1943, the sailor, Archie LaForte, convinced Lee to become his wife. The couple honeymooned in New York City before Archie rejoined his ship. Lee followed, going north to Portland and later south to Norfolk. But it wasn’t until the war ended that the couple expanded their family with two children, both girls, Lisa (LaForte) Holmes of Newtown and Donna (LaForte) Palmer of Bethel. As a member of St Rose’s Parish, Lee raised her young family in Newtown. For a brief time she worked at The Newtown Bee. She volunteered for FISH with Meals on Wheels and for the American Cancer Society. Her journey took her to the Caribbean, throughout Western Europe, to China, and twice back to that little village in central Italy, Montefalcone.

Besides Archie, her loving husband of 57 years, and devoted daughters, Lisa and Donna, Lee’s family includes her sons-in-law, Michael Holmes and Robert Palmer, and three grandchildren, Ryan Holmes, Bridget Holmes, and Josh Palmer. Among her nieces and nephews, Lee leaves her special godchild, Lynn Dudas of Brookfield. In addition to her family, Lee left many close and loving friends in Newtown, in Meriden, and in towns beyond. She was a profound friend to many, and she was the type of person to engage a stranger at the local supermarket over the relative ripeness of a cantaloupe. One could depend on her for a warm greeting, a good story, or a timely joke. She always remembered a friend in need and someone in need of a friend.

Lee’s life may have been a long journey but at journey’s end she found love among those both near and far. Lee LaForte, of Newtown, of Meriden, of Montefalcone, will be missed by her family, her friends, and all who touched her life.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Friday, September 15, at 11:30 am in St Mary Church, 24 Dodgingtown Road, Bethel. Interment will follow in Newtown Village Cemetery. Friends may call at the Honan Funeral Home, 58 Main Street, Newtown, Friday from 9 to 11 am.

Contributions in Lee’s memory may be made to Ann’s Place – The House of I Can, 1 Padanaram Road, Peacock Alley, Suite 201, Danbury, CT 06811, or to Regional Hospice, 30 West Street, Danbury, CT 06810.

The Newtown Bee     September 15, 2000