Charlotte Fitch

WOMEN OF WESTPORT POINT

Charlotte Fitch (1911–2011)

Teacher

24 Cape Bial Lane, Westport Point

Charlotte Fitch, Pril LAwrence, Svetlana Rockwell

Charlotte Hackstaff Fitch, born August 13, 1911, in Verona, NJ, died April 30, 2011, at her home in Westport Point, MA.  Her parents were Frederick Douglass and Charlotte Hackstaff Waring.  She lived in New Jersey until her career at Smith College began at Northampton, Ma. In 1976 she moved full time to Westport Point, Ma.

Charlotte’s mother, Charlotte H. Waring, and aunt, Mary K. Waring, as unmarried women, first visited Westport Point in the late 1880s.  The two came to Westport when Charlotte’s mother complained to a friend at Smith College that she was very tired and wanted to go to the “ends of the earth.”  Her friend from New Bedford suggested she come to Westport. Obviously they liked Westport and once married, her family brought young Charlotte to Westport.  They stayed at different places, at the Hotel Westport, at the Dunes cottage owned by the Hall family, and at an inn at the southwest corner of Main Road and Valentine Lane.

Her ties with Smith College began in 1930 as a student.  In 1934 she pursued a career in theater, including several stock companies as well as non-speaking roles with Katherine Cornell’s touring Shakespeare company. In 1939-40 she was a guide at the New York World’s Fair.

During World War II Charlotte Fitch served as a Red Cross Hospital Recreation Worker, primarily involved with troop entertainment at military hospitals. Then she earned a master’s degree at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Beginning in 1948, Charlotte began her teaching career at Smith College where she taught speech, diction and drama. During summers and sabbaticals, she travelled to many areas of the world. She retired from Smith in 1976 as a full professor and became a resident of Westport Point, where she continued to be involved in theater as director or assistant in local productions.

As a tribute to Charlotte, a colleague from Smith wrote: “We shall miss her bustle, her rich laughter, her mellifluent voice.  A total stranger to her encountered Charlotte as she roamed her favorite beach (Horseneck), learned that she taught at Smith, and responded to her eager interest in current Smith and Northampton. The report of this chance meeting that reached our campus ran as follows:  ‘I have just met the most beautiful woman in her 90s that I could ever imagine.  It was at night.  She lit up the sky.’”