In Memory of Josephine Lonsdale-Carr (Heughan)

November 22, 1922 – July 23, 2023

Josephine “Josie” Lonsdale-Carr Heughan was born November 22, 1922 and died in her 101st year on July 23, 2023. Josephine's life reads like a book. Although clichéd, it's true. Motherless at three, she survived the Great Depression, ran off to join the circus, became a circus high-diver and psychic, served in WWII dodging bullets and bombs as an ambulance driving nurse.

No fond childhood memories for this “damsel in distress.” Born into a dirt-poor family, her father was a decorated World War One veteran serving as a sniper and machine gunner fighting the Germans in Northern France. After the War he helped build the Empire State Building in New York, being half Mohawk, he wasn’t afraid of heights. He then worked in silver mines to provide a meager living for his family. Her father later left the mines to work as a lumberjack.

Josephine was the third of five children, but the eldest, Daniel, died before reaching his first birthday.

Then tragedy struck. Just before her third birthday Josephine's mother died of exhaustion from drudge labor, working for wealthy families. They were so poor that her father had to prepare the body himself, build the casket himself, and cart it out to the cemetery where he dug the grave and buried her, himself.

Alone with four small children and no one to look after them while he went to work in the bush, he once again packed up the family and, this time headed to the city where he got a job with the telephone company as an electrician. Eventually he remarried a woman who missed the Titanic by two hours, and then fathered three more children.

Josie did not get along with her stepmother and when she turned fourteen ran off and joined the circus. This was in the middle of the Great Depression in the 1930s and money was scarce for a family of nine.

Now practically orphaned, she faced the hard cruel world completely broke and on her own. Somehow, through sheer luck and destiny, she managed to get herself a job in the circus where she met a popular high-diver and ladies’ man who dove 110 ft into an 8 ft deep tub filled with flaming water. He was called Captain Tony Carr and taught Josie and her sisters, Dixie and Dot, to swim, dive and use the trampoline.

When Josie wasn't in the water, she also learned how to do psychic readings because in the circus everybody had to multitask if they wanted to keep their jobs. She surprised herself because she was quite adept at reading hands, cups and cards and came to prefer doing that instead of working in the "Water Follies!"

Her father had taught her mystic things by telling her tales of the spirit world. Much of that teaching was repressed but now, as she sat opposite the people she was to "read," it all came flooding back like a lost memory – pictures, images, "voices" the way her father taught her when she was a little girl. She used a single candle while shuffling cards and looking into the cup.

One of her best friends in the water ballet segment of the swim show was a beautiful young woman, an Olympic High Platform Diving champion that Josie hung with. Her friend was Esther Williams who, as predicted by Josie during a reading, went on to fame and fortune in Hollywood as a glamorous, glittering superstar and the darling of MGM Studios.

When the Second World War broke out her oldest brother, Herb, joined up, followed by her father – as if one World War hadn't already been enough for him. Not to be outdone by the men in her family, Josie left the circus and joined the Canadian Women's Army Corps “CWAC”. She trained as a nurse and ambulance driver – snaking her way through the worst of the carnage under enemy fire while carrying the wounded and dead piled up in the back of her ambulance as she sped to the nearest medical center. She served in Europe and the Pacific. The horrors of War would haunt her for the rest of her life.

In 1944 she received an honorable discharge due to being with child. Tony Carr Sr., now in the navy, managed to put into port just long enough.

She gave birth to a son, Anthony. Shortly after, baby in tow, Josie returned to the circus where she trained her son in all things occult whenever she wore her other "hat" as a psychic, and not in the aquatics show. Anthony would grow up to become a renowned psychic appearing regularly in the National Enquirer and on TV with his dear friend and longtime partner Jacqueline Stallone, mother of Sylvester.

Josie finally left the show to settle down for a less nomadic, more stable life. She gave birth to another child, a girl, Tina, who, along with her older brother, would play psychic games, holding up playing cards and concentrating to see if the other would know what it was. They were building their psychic muscles and they learned to communicate telepathically without ever speaking a word to each other.

Over the years, Josephine also worked as a nurse at a Veterans Hospital, and became the matriarch of a truly psychic family, whose many psychic prophecies over the years came true.

Some of Josie's prophecies included the dizzying heights of Esther Williams' success, the fiery deaths of 125 passengers aboard the ill-fated SS Noronic in Toronto in 1949 and the disgrace of one-time Gold Medal winner, Ben Johnson, stripped of his prize for using steroids during the 1988 Olympics.

Josephine spent the last few years of her life fighting with her diminished health, with Anthony by her side. Anthony, now 80 years old, has spent the last 10 years of his life taking care of his mother, at the expense of his career. He exchanged his tarot cards and crystal ball to change his mother’s diapers, feeding her and taking her to the hospital countless times. He spent many days and nights by her sick bed at home and at the hospital, and many times had to cancel business and personal plans to be with her. The last decade has taken a toll on both their health and finances. Anthony is inconsolable since his mother’s death, whom he considered his soulmate.

Anthony recalls her mother’s wishes: a simple funeral and Amazing Grace played by a lone piper. He is overwhelmed and saddened with grief, as he cannot afford to respect her wishes without your help.

Josephine “Josie” Lonsdale was an amazing woman, wife and mother, she lived a full and fascinating life and has influenced many generations of women, while raising her children in the wake of World War Two and through a world full of turmoil today. Josephine Lonsdale was a woman of courage and a pioneer for all women in the 20th century, and set a standard for many young women to follow.

Join us in honoring her memory by helping to fund her final resting place. Any donations – small or large – are very welcome. God bless you all!