It's been nearly 10 months since a 27-year-old man shot and killed a store owner near Lake Arrowhead over the Pride flag in front of her clothing boutique.
Now, as Pride Month begins, Lauri Carleton’s daughters are sharing more about their mom and her inclusive heart.
Kelsey and Ari Carleton said their mom was a lifelong supporter of the gay community. She was an ally, married to her husband Bort for 38 years.
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"She was just a fighter for equality, and that’s all she ever fought for and wanted," Kelsey Carleton said. "She didn’t want anyone to feel left out."
Ari said she learned a lot from her mom.
'She taught me to be independent, to be strong,” she said. “But she also taught me to stand up for myself and stand up for others.”
A fashion designer, Carleton worked with some big names like Fred Segel and Kenneth Cole. In 2013, she opened her first boutique in Studio City called MagPi. In 2021, she opened her second near Lake Arrowhead, where she lived part-time for 20 years.
“She said being on her boat, on the lake, that’s her church,” Kelsey said. “Lake Arrowhead’s always been her happy place.”
When she opened the boutique near the water, she put up the Pride flag on Day 1.
“She felt so strongly in supporting that community because it was her community. Like these were people she loved and cared about, that we love and care about,” Ari said. “She was an advocate for everyone, she was a community builder. It was just about all are welcome here and by all that means all.”
Though she consistently supported the LGBTQ+ community, she was often faced with people who didn’t like her flag.
“The flags had been tampered with before, she had been harassed, she always put them back up,” Ari said. “Because to her, the cause of what she was doing was bigger than and more important than what people were resisting.”
Sadly, on Aug. 18 a dispute turned violent when that 27-year-old man showed up to her Lake Arrowhead boutique and shot and killed Lauri after he made homophobic comments and tore down her Pride flag. Deputies later killed the gunman.
Carleton's death devastated Lake Arrowhead’s small LGBTQ+ community.
“You kind of felt numb, it was hard to wrap your head around,” Andrew Ferrera said. “For it to happen in a community that is so small and tight knit as this community, it just hit a lot harder."
“It’s really hard to have a day where you don’t think about her, really,” Matthew Clevenger said. “She was the lioness up here for us, she was our protector. People couldn’t say anything wrong about us or she would come after them.”
“Sometimes I think allies don’t get enough credit because they can speak when we can’t,” Bev Eskew said. “She was just a fierce advocate. She spoke truth to power. She wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. And to do what she thought was right.”
And that’s why this year, when they celebrate Lake Arrowhead Pride at the end of June, they’ll also celebrate Lauri.
“What we are doing this year is we are having our first event at the beach at the resort here in Lake Arrowhead, that’ll be a champagne toast it’ll be the first annual Lauri Carleton Memorial Beach Bash,” Clevenger said. “We figured an event was something really nice to do, and that morphed into why don’t we do it as an annual event, and why don’t we do it as the very first event every year.”
“She stood for light and love and that will never be forgotten,” Eskew said.
If you go back to Lauri’s boutique today, you’ll learn new bosses are in charge – Kelsey and Ari.
“As we’ve learned, owning a retail store is no easy feat and she made it look really easy,” Ari said. “How could you not carry on something that she worked so hard to build?”
And if you park outside the store, you’ll also notice something else – the Pride flag is back up too.
“We obviously stand with our mom, we agree with everything that she stood for,” Kelsey said. “We still keep these flags up because we strongly believe in it as well.”
“She wasn’t going to stand down, and we won’t either, and that’s the reality and that’s what people need to know,” Ari said.
Lauri’s family and friends are working to continue her vision for a more inclusive world by starting the Lauri Carleton Memorial Fund. The money in the fund will go toward local inclusive initiatives in the Lake Arrowhead area. For more information click here.
For a wider reach, the family asks people to donate to the Human Rights Campaign.
The daughters share updates on the boutique’s Instagram page.
