Lorraine Bauerfeld (formerly Fleming) is a character on ONtv's Harpers Falls: New Beginnings. She was originally played by Big Brother alumna Shelly Moore, but when Shelly did not renew her contract, the character had taken a break in the UK and she returned, now played by actress Raquel Cassidy, best known for her role of Phyllis Baxter, the on-screen lady's maid of Elizabeth McGovern on the series, Downton Abbey.
Raquel was thrilled to find out that she had been the new choice for Lorraine. "Shelly told me that she had felt that it was time for her to move on," she said, "and when Elizabeth (who plays Lady Josephine) told Albert about me, he remembered that he loved Baxter as a lady's maid. He saw me as Lorraine, and I am so looking forward to a new direction, where I can be as nice as Baxter, but also more strong and in the business world! It's a lot of fun."
Powerful businesswoman[]
This powerful businesswoman was born Lorraine Bauerfeld in Vidalia, Louisiana, and moved to Boston when she was in her early twenties. She took the name, Lorraine Gerber, because this way, nobody would know she had been married to Callen Fleming, the father of her daughter.
She met and married Callen in 1982, in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana. Callen was an up and coming oil man in the rural parishes of Louisiana.
Their daughter, Serena Fleming, was born in the first year of their marriage, but a teen marriage didn't often last. After her divorce, she took Serena and legally changed her last name to Gerber, the name she herself took.
Lorraine then took the freedom that her divorce gave her, and went to school at Radcliffe and became a very successful businesswoman. She took over the reins of Fleming Industries when she discovered that she owned half interests in her former husband's corporation.
It was recently revealed that Lorraine is in fact an old friend of Sandra Jacobson from their years at Radcliffe.
Lorraine had been godmother to her first daughter, Jennifer Jacobson, before she had been murdered at the hands of a Harper family enemy.
She is a hands on mother, to her equally successful daughter, Serena She is powerful, and yet underneath, very down to earth. She and Serena also organize the Gerber-Fleming foundation, a charity that helps support families who had been shattered by divorce.
At first, Lorraine was against men being part of it, but Serena made her mother see that men are also victims of divorce as well. Lorraine agreed to that, deep inside, she is a fair woman, and allowed men to also benefit from their charity.
For a while, Lorraine was in the UK, working for Bauerfeld Industries London branch (which explains Raquel now playing the character); she recently returned and is as close with Serena as she ever was.