Charlotte Diane Love

Charlotte was married to Gail F. Love for 54 years, and they had two sons, Stephen M. Love and Sean P. Love. She is survived by her husband and both of her sons as well as Sean’s family, Mary (Sutcliffe) Love and two beautiful and talented granddaughters, Katherine Love and Claire Love. She is also survived by her immediate family members, which include her mother, Doris G. BeLoat, sisters, Debbie Spivey and Amanda Eickelman, and brother, Mark BeLoat.

Born in Columbus Ohio, Charlotte moved to Orlando, Florida in the late 60’s where her father, Donald E. Beloat, had been relocated to work at Kennedy Space Center. It is in Orlando in August of 1970 that she met her soulmate for life, Gail, who had just moved in next door to where they lived to attend Florida Technological University, now UCF, in the charter Engineering school at that time. Charlotte was a dedicated believer in Christ at an early age and active in their church where she played the piano and organ, along with her parents who were dedicated to serving the Lord as well. Gail was also a believer and only 19 years of age at that time, Charlotte was 17, but neither of them had ever dated up to that time. It only took a few weeks before they knew that they were meant for each other and took that giant leap of having a first kiss. From there on out, everything fell in place quickly.

Gail and Charlotte were married just over a year later just before he started his senior year in college and Charlotte had just completed her certification for her Licensed Practical Nursing position at Florida Hospital in Orlando. The following year was extremely busy for them both, but Gail graduated and was hired immediately by Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin) in August of 1972 and Charlotte, who was now 7 months pregnant with their first son Stephen, was now able to quit work and never looked back.

Gail’s work was very challenging and required much of his time and even them relocating to both New Orleans, LA where Sean was born, and Denton, Texas, extensive travel all around the US and several trips to Europe where Gail was a keynote speaker at several international conferences. Meanwhile, Charlotte was the perfect helpmate for Gail, supporting him at every turn. They were heavily involved in the children’s programs at Powers Drive Baptist Church in Pine Hills, FL for many years before they finally decided to build their dream home in Windermere, FL where they lived up till 1996. Charlotte was a faithful wife who spent all her time with her boys, especially Stephen who was disabled at birth and required special education at home and school, and Sean who excelled both in high school and college. She was a leader in bringing about early home education for children with learning disabilities, working tirelessly both in Central Florida and Tallahassee getting legislation passed in this area. In her spare time, she would support her husband at every turn, including supporting him within the church and even his career where she helped with engineering projects at home as part of a business he had started.

She was also adventurous following Gail’s lead in all kinds of crazy projects, travel, etc. In addition to working with the children at church, she loved playing golf, bowling, exploring the US and Europe, quiet times in the mountains, spending time with family, playing a major role in building and maintaining a Herbie The Love Bug for their son Stephen who remained at home and even putting together special charity events over the years that they sponsored for the US Marines Toys for Tots and the Herbie community. Just over 3 years ago she helped Gail put together the largest gathering of these cars in the world and was driving Joaquin Garay III, Paco from Herbie Goes Bananas, around the Daytona International Speedway. Of course, she did much more such as offshore scuba diving on ship wreaks, jumping off the back of boats in the middle of the night in the Gulf Stream for night diving, and diving with the sharks. Overall, there was never a dull moment in her life.

In addition to all of this, they became members of Open Door Baptist Church in Clermont, FL in 2003 and quickly became actively involved in all aspects of the church from working with the older children’s programs such as Patch the Pirate, etc., running the church nursery, and helping Gail run the audio/video which included working every event at the church such as weddings, memorial services, special teaching events, maintaining the church website, and more.

Charlotte was faithful to the very end. She had run a fantastic race and is now able to simply enjoy the fruits of her labor. She will be greatly missed, but never forgotten...