Carol Arne (1933 - 2009) Resident of Montclair
Carol Arne was a devoted wife to Judge Courtland D. Arne and a homemaker to surviving children Robert Arne and Colleen Casanova. Carol was a brilliant wit whose great heart and traditional values consecrated her in the home while the world around her which she witnessed vividly on world sojourns changed so dramatically. She was born in Iowa to Robert and Mary Lowe who raised her with solid Midwestern values, Christianity, and a depression-era knack for saving that served her well in WWII civilian life, when her father gained higher rations for dry-cleaning sales.
Mrs. Arne played leads in Oakland High School plays and, later on, cheered friends and family with charades and impromptu impersonations. This intelligence and drama served her well enough to gain admittance to Berkeley, where dating and social life in her sorority outweighed the pleasures of college graduation. Carol found the perfect gentleman in her husband to be, and she helped Don graduate from Berkeley in 1951 and work his way through Hastings Law School by 1954, when they married. The pair eloped because their grandparents saw little hope in their future.
As Don was drafted into the army, Carol followed him to army bases and worked for doctors until he was released to begin his chosen career in Hayward. Carol and Don adopted two children, Robert in 1961 and Colleen in 1963. With infinite cheer, Carol gave her husband and young children everything that makes life warm, rich and varied: outstanding home cooking, arts and crafts instruction, dramatic reading, trips to boating locations and Indian dances. She made friends in the Oakland Athletic Club and the First Presbyterian Church.
Ominously, Don and Carol smoked tobacco as they discussed daily affairs before TV news and game shows in a romance that lasted over fifty years. Carol's enduring support helped launch her husband into a public career as Judge of the Oakland Municipal Court, a Reagan appointee in 1971. During and after Don's twenty years on the bench, Carol travelled to more than fifty countries. They gladly sacrificed fancy cars to send their children to Head-Royce and UC Berkeley. She allowed and encouraged her children to do what they pleased in life with the verve and social skills needed for professional careers related to art and history, sales and education.
Meanwhile, Carol volunteered work for the Oakland Museum and the Altzheimer's Foundation. She enjoyed bridge games and reading books about great leaders from all times. Her cheer never ceased, not even when her husband caught lung cancer and her constant presence in the hospital miraculously rescued him from death until he finally succumbed to pneumonia in 2008. Carol sought life after death and strove not to burden other people with the pains of esophageal cancer that eventually led her to death on August 26, 2009. Fitting that she died on a day marking both her son's school's triumph and her daughter's birthday, Carol lived with infinite compassion for her family and others.
