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At 100, World War II veteran counts her blessings, candles, bubbles

The Press Democrat - 7/26/2020

Jul. 25--Fun-stifling restrictions mandated by the COVID crisis did a pretty good job of making just another day of World War II veteran Lorraine Collins' 100th birthday. Thank heavens for the bubbly.

A sip of Champagne on special days is among Collins' secrets to living long and happily. Worthy of note: The former U.S. Army nurse, who 75 years ago halted her healing long enough to duck deadly German buzz bombs, suggests treating each day as special.

Ask the congenial, fastidiously dressed resident of the skilled nursing wing at Santa Rosa'sSpring Lake Village what she credits for her being in quite fine shape at 100 and she says, "Keeping active and busy, playing games to stay sharp, having great friends and drinking Champagne!"

Lorraine speaks little of the war. But old stories and the contents of her two photo albums and a memory box recall how the East Bay native enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps in July of 1942 at age 22 and as a second lieutenant was shipped to Europe.

Amid the tents of the sprawling 76th General Hospital, she was known by the nickname "Larry."

She has told of repurposing a parachute for a wedding dress she sewed for a fellow nurse and of close calls from Hitler's buzz bombs, early cruise missiles dubbed the V-1. Among her war mementos is a bracelet that was made from a piece of buzz bomb and that's etched with "Larry" and the names of some of the nurses with whom she served.

Lorraine returned after the war to the East Bay. In 1946, she was getting ready for a blind date with one Murray Ballard, an orthodontist from up in Santa Rosa. He arrived early, catching her in her curlers.

She decided to love him anyway. They eventually married and settled in Santa Rosa, where Lorraine gave birth to two children and immersed herself in the growing town's culture and charitable organizations.

She and Dr. Ballard later divorced, and in 1987 Lorraine married Robert Collins. They thrived together until Robert's death in 2004.

The pandemic has kept Lorraine largely cooped up at Spring Lake Village, her home since 2009. Though known for her bright disposition, she sort of channeled a provoked Gen. George Patton when her physician directed one day that she no longer treat herself to an afternoon glass of Champagne.

The doctor relented. Unlike Lorraine's two children, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, the doc was able to stop by and see her last week during her birthday in isolation.

And what a sweet surprise: He brought her a bottle of Korbel.

...

A COWARDLY KILLING in a mountain town in Southern California, quickly followed by two more fatal shootings on the East Coast, is keeping Petaluma'sJoe Manthey awake at night.

Manthey, an activist and broadcaster who refers to himself as a "male advocate," aches for ally and friend Marc Angelucci. The 52-year-old attorney and officer of the National Coalition for Men was gunned down July 11 outside his home near Crestline, in San Bernardino County.

"He was a saint," says Manthey, who appeared along with Angelucci in the 2016 documentary "The Red Pill," in which director Cassie Jaye set out to expose a hate campaign but became sympathetic to many contentions of the men's rights movement.

Manthey recalls Angelucci living simply, driving a beat-up car and speaking out for equality in situations that included men being barred from protection at domestic-violence shelters and women being precluded from registering for the military draft.

Authorities say they believe Angelucci was murdered by Roy Den Hollander, an erratic anti-feminist lawyer who'd been rejected by the National Coalition for Men. And the FBI has called Den Hollander, 72, the "primary subject" in the shootings last Sunday evening at the New Jersey home of a federal judge, Esther Salas, that killed her 20-year-old son, Daniel Anderl, and seriously wounded her husband, Mark Anderl.

In both crimes, the gunman wore a FedEx uniform when he approached the homes and commenced shooting. On Monday, Den Hollander was found dead of an apparent suicide in the Catskills in New York.

All of it, particularly the slaying of Angelucci, has Manthey tossing at night. "A sick man murdered a great man," he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Chris Smith at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.

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