Charlotte Keyser Eaton

Grosse Pointe. She was born Nov. 20, 1926, in Washington, D.C., to Maj. Gen. Ralph

Stover Keyser, U.S. Marine Corps, of Thoroughfare, Va., and Charlotte Palmer Capers

of Charleston, S.C. She was descended from original Huguenot settlers of South

Carolina, the first colonial governors of the colony, three Episcopal bishops, one

Methodist bishop and seven ministers and colonial deacons.

She grew up in Falls Church, Va., on a farm until her beloved father was called back to

active service during World War II to be assistant commandant of the Marine Corps. The

family moved back to Washington, D.C., in 1941, where Kitsy became a fashion model

and enjoyed attending the many formal balls and events at the embassies. Because her

father was a general, she could use the family car with unlimited gas despite wartime

rationing. When she was 15, her father taught her how to drive in a cemetery because,

he said, “You can’t kill anybody here.”

She attended Gunston Hall Girls School in Washington, D.C., until WWII caused it to

close in 1943. She then graduated from Western High School in 1944. Kitsy met her first

husband, Maj. Chauncey Brewster Chapman Jr., USMC, at one of the embassy parties

that same year when he was home on furlough from the Pacific War Theater. They

married in September 1945. Their first child, Chauncey Brewster Chapman III, was born

in 1949, in Washington, D.C., in the middle of his father’s finals at Georgetown Law

School. Her first daughter, Rebecca “Becky” Palmer Chapman Booth, was born four years

later in 1953, and Susan Keyser Chapman also was born in Washington, D.C., in 1958.

Kitsy’s three children were christened by the Very Rev. Francis B. Sayer Jr., “Uncle

Frank,” at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Kitsy continued to enjoy parties,

entertaining and making lifelong friends. She loved the sun and beach, and the young

family enjoyed spending most every summer at either Bethany or Rehoboth Beach in

Delaware.

Kitsy divorced Brewster late in 1959 to marry Berrien Clark Eaton Jr. of Grosse Pointe.

Their daughter, Ann “Abbe” Berrien Eaton, was born in 1960. While living in Grosse

Pointe, Kitsy made many more lifelong friends and generally was the belle of the ball at

parties using her Southern charm and elegance on everyone. She was a member of

Christ Church Grosse Pointe and served on its Alter Guild for two decades. She was on

the Board of Trustees of the Neighborhood Club, the Northeast Guidance Center steering

committee and Sigma Gamma Association. She also started and managed The University

Camp, a summer play camp for young children in the community. She truly loved young

people and took a great deal of delight being around them. To be surrounded by lively,

smart, fun people and to do good along the way was of lifelong importance to her.

Kitsy and Berrien divorced in 1969. As a divorced mother of four children, Kitsy had to

develop creative ways to support her family. Trained for nothing other than modeling and

entertaining, she buckled down and took as job as a ward clerk at St. John Hospital in

Detroit. She went on to discover better employment situations for her family and tried

various things: Business director for Olsten Temporaries Inc., which gave her an ugly car

to drive with a blue flowered vinyl roof that she hated; manager for Stroh’s Ice Cream

Parlor in Grosse Pointe; and, her favorite job, working at the Pointe Peddler, a high-end

kitchen store before the days of Williams Sonoma. She also founded and owned The

Small Dance Class for middle-school children so they could learn how to socialize, learn

manners, etiquette and how to do ballroom and popular dances. She loved the children

and they loved her. Throughout her life she would be greeted with great enthusiasm by

adults who had been her students.

In 1985, Kitsy moved to Ann Arbor to take a job as a house mother at the Alpha Gamma

Delta sorority on Hill Street. Running a household of young women, overseeing all of the

daily operations of the house was a job she relished. When invited, she also held etiquette

classes for the fraternity house across the street; they even made a video of her lesson

to refresh their skills before important meetings or interviews. She held this job for 15

years. After her retirement, she continued to get visits, phone calls and cards from her

sorority daughters up until the time of her death.

Kitsy loved living in Ann Arbor and its youthful culture. She attended music concerts and

theatric events and made countless new and good friends. She joined a travel club and

enjoyed trips to Africa, China and England and went white river rafting and hiking with

Abbe, as well as numerous trips to Minnesota to visit grandchildren. She was an active

and busy volunteer in Ann Arbor. She volunteered at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens,

Ann Arbor Farm and Garden, University of Michigan Museum of Art Friends Activity

Committee and St. Andrews Episcopal Church Newcomers and Membership Committee.

She was a greeter at the University of Michigan Turner Geriatric Center and one of the

“Flower Ladies” for children in residence at C. S. Mott Children’s Hospital doing

horticultural therapy. She was a skilled hand-quilter and was made an honorary member

of the Faculty Wives Quilting Group. Kitsy also loved to knit. She knitted countless

specialized cotton bandages for leprosy care and many lap blankets for the VA Hospital.

As an expression of her joy of children, she became a playground and recess monitor at

Angell Elementary School, as well as a crossing guard for public schools through Ann

Arbor. Kitsy was well-loved by her neighbors in the Lower Burns Park neighborhood. They

always watched out for her and, in her later years, would cut her lawn, rake her leaves

and shovel her snow.

Kitsy is survived by her children, Chauncey Brewster Chapman Jr. of Deerfield Beach,

Fla., Rebecca Palmer Chapman Booth of Grosse Pointe Shores, Susan Keyser Chapman

of Kalamazoo and Ann Berrien Eaton of Ann Arbor; grandchildren, John Lord Booth III,

Charlotte-Louise Brewster Booth Shahid, Steven Brewster Malevich and Philip Stover

Malevich; great-grandchildren, Kameron Robert Shahid Jr., Tristan Brewster Shahid and

Palmer Chapman Shahid; stepson, Theodore Hambleton Eaton of Beverly, Mass., and

many dear friends in both Grosse Pointe and Ann Arbor.

A short service will be held Saturday, May 23, at Christ Church Grosse Pointe, 61 Grosse

Pointe Blvd., Grosse Pointe Farms, in the scatter garden section of the columbarium

followed by a reception. All are welcome to come and celebrate Kitsy’s life and share their

favorite Kitsy stories. The family suggests expressions of sympathy be made to the charity

of your own choosing.