Laureen M. Beauchaine
West Warwick, R.I.
Fifteen minutes.
That was about how long Laureen M. Beauchaine, 35, had been at The Station
before the horrific fire engulfed the club and claimed her life.
Beauchaine loved the kind of hard rock that Great White played and loved to
party, but most of all, she loved her children and her family. So before she
and her husband, Ray, went to dance at The Station last Thursday, she took her
three children, as well as some nephews and nieces, to roller-skate.
"Everything she did was for her family. She was 100 percent for her
children," her brother-in-law, Dwayne Beauchaine, said yesterday. After her
children -- Christopher, 15, Ray, 7, and Ashley, 5 -- had skated and played
with their cousins at the rink, she took them home, changed her clothes, and
headed with Ray to The Station for the show.
Ray Beauchaine, 38, was still in critical condition at Rhode Island
Hospital yesterday.
No one in Beauchaine's family was surprised that her last night was spent
mainly with her children. "She was a wicked good mother. Her kids adored her,"
said 15-year-old niece Amanda Beauchaine.
Two years ago, she worked a part-time job from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m., delivering
the Providence Journal, so she could be at home with her children during the
day, said her mother, Elaine DeSantis.
Beauchaine was born in Providence, raised in Cranston, R.I., and attended
West Warwick High School before dropping out in the ninth grade to help with
her mother's jewelry business. She married Ray Beauchaine, a construction
worker, 16 years ago, and the family lived in a large, ranch-style home that
she loved in West Warwick.
Survivors include her children, her parents, Elaine and Ronald DeSantis,
and her brother, Ron DeSantis, all of West Warwick.
JUDITH GAINES