Carlo Wolter Dearcopp Papers

From niece Joanne Dearcopp: "Carlo Wolter Dearcopp [born Henrietta Roden] (1900-1996), originally from Germany, came to America as a war bride in 1923. Trained as a ballet dancer, she formed her own dance troupe that performed on vaudeville circuits all across the U.S. When she grew tired of living out of a suitcase, she took up figure skating which led to a career as a specialty skater with ice shows, teaching figure skating and doing choreography for many shows, including the Roxy in NYC. Carlo taught figure skating at Mount Snow when it first opened; the story goes that they put in the rink because they had her on board.

She met Charlie Dearcopp at the 1939 World’s Fair in NYC where he was stationed as a New York City policeman and she was teaching skating. They took a 16,000-mile journey around America to find their dream home and discovered it in Searsburg, VT. They bought the house next to the World’s End Diner from Gertrude Hulett in 1948. Their home, “Skylark,” on top of the Molly Stark Trail was to be their haven and an inspiration for her writing. Carlo’s weekly column “Mountain Chatter” appeared in the Bennington Banner and the Brattleboro Reformer for decades, as did her feature articles in the Cracker Barrel and other regional magazines. She also wrote a beginners book on skating (Franklin Watts).

Articles of local historic interest reflected her thorough research on subjects such as the Kelley Stand Road; the editor of The Social Register, Mrs. Edward Barry who lived in Wilmington; the Arabian Horse fancier Frank Warner; the Carpathians; and the birth of Mount Snow in 1954.The couple were active in Searsburg and held many positions over the years: lister, town auditor, justice of the peace, fire warden, snow-tester, fern-packers, and the list goes on."

Also from Joanne Dearcopp: "The contents reveal the amazing success my Aunt had in her professional career as a dancer, figure skater, choreographer, teacher. I had no idea! What was also amazing was learning that 3,000 would show up for an ice skating show in many a small city across America. Through her industriousness and talent she managed to always be employed - going from one show to the next, shifting gears (getting into roller skating) when the necessity or opportunity arose, and fearlessly flowing into new areas such as choreography and teaching. She wrote a few articles during those years, but it was once she moved to VT that she pursued her writing wholeheartedly.

In these albums one also gets a glimpse of her young life before she came to America as a war bride in 1920 at 20 years old. She took a couple of trans-Atlantic trips to visit her mother (late 20's-30's) and the photos reveal her great zest - she loved a good party!

Looking at the various show programs, letters, etc. one notes the many names by which she is mentioned. I don't know if some are typos or if she used many names but here are some: -Carlo Roden (her first married name). Maiden name Henriette Klein -Carlo Stein and Carlo Sterne and Stern. (This may be what she used with her partner Ingo Thess when they had their feature dance act) -Carlo or Carlo (Carlo was short for Carlotte which was changed in US by authorities to Charlotte) -Henny Roden (Henny was her German nickname for Henriette) -Carlo Wolter (name of her second husband married '29), Charlotte Walter -Carlo Wolter remained her professional name as a columnist and writer -Carlo Dearcopp (third husband, Charles, my uncle, with whom she moved to VT)"