52 Ancestors: #4 Carrie C. Fields, Red Skelton's Aunt

Carrie with her first child, Agnes, in 1913

My great-great grandmother, Carrie Fields, was born March 30, 1891 in Vincennes, Indiana to Asa Fields and Susanna Kimmel.  She was the sixth of seven children.  Her older sister, Ida Mae, was the mother of comedian Red Skelton.

Ida Mae with a young Red Skelton, c. 1914

Carrie married Charles Carl Lange Jr., a street car conductor, on May 16, 1911.  Together they had seven children: Agnes (my great grandmother), Louise, Carl, Florence and Helen (twins), Robert, and Paul.  The couple separated in 1920.   According to a newpaper article in The Vincennes Morning Commercial, Carrie filed for divorce on account of her husband's alleged abusive behavior.  It seems that they reconciled, because four of their children were born after 1920. 

Only a year after her seventh child was born, Carrie died on August 23, 1927.  Her death certificate says she died from erysipelas, a severe skin infection.  She was 36.

She was a member of St. John's Lutheran Church in Vincennes.  "Aside from church her chief interest in life was centered in her home, husband, and children.  Whatever suffering was her lot she bore with fortitude and was ever a patient and loving wife and mother whose place in the family circle will always remain vacant." (From Carrie's obituary in the Vincennes Morning Commercial on August 24, 1927.)