Lorraine Legette

Alice Lorraine Nicholl LeGette died on December 18, 2020, at the age of 100. She was born on July 17, 1920 in Lockport, NY to George Arthur Nicholl and Mildred Edna Black Nicholl, both cadet officers-in-training in the Salvation Army. As Salvationists they were frequently reassigned to posts far and wide as they trained and ultimately attained officer status and promotions. Before Lorraine was 13 she had traveled from Lockport to Brooklyn, to Key West, Jacksonville, FL, Atlanta, Galveston, New Orleans, back to Lockport, then Troy, NY. At the age of 12 Lorraine lost her mother to TB. Subsequently, she lived for a while in Charleston, SC, Dallas, Tx, Macon, Ga, then Columbus, Ga where she graduated from Jordan Vocational High School. Her first job out of high school was in Atlanta as a secretary in the Salvation Army Divisional offices. She later found work in Charleston as a steno reporter for the Judge Advocate Office at the Port of Embarkation. Thereafter she moved back to Atlanta where she worked for a time at H.M. Patterson’s Funeral Home, Spring Hill. During her time there Patterson’s facilitated the descendant affairs for President Roosevelt and train transportation of his remains from Warm Springs, GA to Atlanta and ultimately on to Washington, D.C. Lorraine left Patterson’s to take a position at Bucyrus-Erie Company. She was boarding at the time in the Morningside area of Atlanta and riding the bus downtown to work. By 1948, also riding the bus from Morningside was a young former Army Chief Warrant Officer, V. Dudley LeGette, by then working for Aetna Casualty & Surety. They married in 1950. They remained in the Atlanta area, then Decatur, where they had their first home and began a family. In 1959 Aetna relocated the family to West Hartford, CT where they lived until 1961 when they returned to Decatur to stay, rekindle old friendships and acquaintances, make new ones and joined Oak Grove United Methodist Church where they were actively involved for many years and so enjoyed their Fellowship Sunday School class. In 1970, Lorraine returned to work for lifelong friends at Salvation Army Southeastern Territorial Headquarters, Missing Persons Service. She retired in 1985. She lost her beloved Dudley in 1998 and made a life for herself in her condo in Tucker where she remained active and independent and the center of her family’s life until she fell ill last week. Her many talents, her quiet strength, unwavering faith and principles, love for family and friends and warm and endearing personality will not soon be forgotten.

Lorraine was preceded in death by a brother lost in infancy, Arthur LeGrand Nicholl, her parents George and Edna, step mother Erna Main Nicholl, her husband, Dudley, and sisters Ivy Rost, Sarah Nicholl and Jeanne Nicholl. She leaves behind her daughter, Diane LeGette, Decatur, GA and son, Donn LeGette, of Duluth, GA, brother David H. Nicholl and sister Ada Wilson, both of Florida, sister-in-law Michele Nicholl of Atlanta, nieces, nephews, as well as grand and great grand nieces and nephews, and a host of loving friends and neighbors whose lives she has touched.

A. S. Turner & Sons is handling arrangements. A graveside service will be held at Floral Hills Memory Gardens, Tucker, GA at 1:00PM, Wednesday, December 23, 2020.

Donations may be made to:

Oak Grove United Methodist Church
Senior Adult Ministry
1722 Oak Grove Rd
Decatur, GA 30033

or

Salvation Army
https://salvationarmysouth.org/valueguide-htm/