Obituary of Eleanor Racette

Eleanor Racette, Putnam’s “Wallpaper Lady” Eleanor Racette, known to generations as Putnam’s “Wallpaper Lady,” passed away suddenly Saturday, October 29th, at Day Kimball Hospital, surrounded by her son Frank and daughter and son-in-law Spring and William Price. She proudly served as a Navy Wave during World War II. In her 95th year at the time of her passing, she was perhaps the most senior member of Putnam’s business community, still active in the family wallpaper business. Eleanor always pursued study in nature, her favorite subject. * * * * * Born Eleanor Virginia Kaminski in Toledo, Ohio in 1921, she was a 1941 Retail Selling graduate at the Harriet Whitney Vocational High School. Enlisting shortly after Pearl Harbor Day, she attended the Naval Training School, in Boston, where she studied business at Bryant & Stratton. Following additional training at Manhattan’s Hunter College, she served for the remainder of World War II as a Navy Wave in the Stores Department at Great Lakes Naval Training School in Cleveland, Ohio. Upon her Honorable Discharge in 1946 she received a letter from Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal stating that “No other Navy at any time has done so much. For your part in these achievements you deserve to be proud as long as you live. The Nation which you served at a time of crisis will remember you with gratitude.” Following her marriage, Eleanor settled in Putnam, working directly with Byron Bugbee, founder of the legendary Bugbee’s Department Store (now the Antiques Marketplace building). For over five decades Mrs. Racette was prominent as Northeast Connecticut’s foremost retailer of wallpaper, continuing the family business that was started after the Putnam flood of 1955 by her entrepreneurial father-in-law, Pete Racette. What was originally planned as a source to supply landlords who were forced to do budget renovations of tenements following that disaster soon evolved into a shop that represented such prestigious wallpaper and fabric manufacturers as F. Schumacher, Waverly, Greeff, Laura Ashley, Ralph Lauren, Richard Thibaut, Katzenbach & Warren, Old Stone Mill, Thomas Strahan, Waterhouse Wallhangings, and Zuber. Developing a specialty of historic reproduction wallpapers, her shop supplied materials for many significant private homes and important museums throughout Southern New England. Local clients included the Prudence Crandall Museum in Canterbury, the 1841 Old Town House in Pomfret, the 1846 Roseland Collage in Woodstock, the 1829 Deshon-Allyn Mansion in New London, plus the 1791 Putnam Elms Homestead and the 1800 Daniel Putnam Tyler Law Office, both in Brooklyn. Wallcoverings she supplied for the restoration of playwright Eugene O’Neill’s boyhood home, the 1888 Monte Cristo Cottage were featured in Architectural Digest. A recent project was the 1797 Rider Tavern in Charlton, Massachusetts. For over twenty-five years Mrs. Racette sponsored an annual award for graduates at Plainfield High School. As an online entity, the family business continues to market wallpapers worldwide. During her final decades, she enjoyed taking classes with the Learning in Retirement program at Quinebaug Valley Community College, where she made many friends. In addition, Eleanor always looked forward to breakfasting at Pomfret’s Vanilla Bean Café. There will be no services.