Charlotte (Arne) LEVERONE

WOOD, LEVERONE, ARNE, COURTNEY

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 9/17/2006 at 14:23:12

Boston Globe
April 5, 1983

CHARLOTTE LEVERONE, ONLY WOMAN TO SWIM TO BOSTON LIGHT AND BACK

Charlotte L. (Arne) Leverone, 66, of Arlington, died yesterday the Lawrence Memorial Hospital, Medford, after suffering a stroke.In 1934, as a 17-year-old Medford High School junior, Charlotte Arne completed the arduous swim to Boston Light and back - a distance of more than 26 miles. She was the only woman ever to swim that course, and did it in 13 hours and 34 minutes. She dived into the harbor from the old Charlestown Bridge at 5:55 a.m. and returned at 7:29 p.m. after the nonstop swim. The feat is regarded by some experts as being more difficult than the English Channel swim, because of Boston Harbor's strong and reversing tides. Her accomplishment cannot be duplicated because the harbor channels have since been changed. Mrs. Leverone was born in Eagle Grove, Iowa. She earned her bachelor of science degree from Sargent College, the former women's physical education school at Boston University, in 1939. She married Charles Leverone in 1943. Mrs. Leverone taught women's physical education at Medford and Sharon high schools, and was a member of St. John's Episcopal Church, Arlington. Besides her husband, she leaves five sons, Charles David, Michael, and John Leverone, all of Arlington, James of Rochester and Robert of Billerica; a daughter, Rosanne Gomes of Wareham; three sisters, Constance Wood of Concord, N.H., Carolyn Macomber of Sandwich, and Ingeborg Courtney of Bristol, Va.; a brother, James Arne of Marion; and five grandchildren. A funeral service will be held at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the Grannon Funeral Home, Massachusetts avenue, Arlington.