Mother Lorine Hargrave was Born the fourth daughter of eleven offspring to sharecropper parents, Ester and Aline Newton, in a dysfunctional home in Mt. Pleasant, Texas, April 1st “April Fools Day”, 1937, Lorine Newton had nothing of which to aspire. She had to harvest and chop cotton from sun-up to sundown, five months out of a year. Other jobs she held included hotels housekeeping, babysitting Caucasian children (much older than herself), or dishwashing and cooking at a local restaurant. Lorine loved school. The couple moved from Barstow to San Bernardino in 1957, because there were no hospital facilities or colleges in Barstow. Lorine worked as a “nurse’s where she attended the Booker T. Washington High School, but could only attend three months out of a fiscal school year. Her break from this situation came when the family moved to Barstow, California, with her sister and brother-in-law in 1954, where she also met and married, Douglas R. Hargrave, now married for 56 years. From this union five beautiful daughters were born. Both Lorine and her husband, Douglas were converted to the Pentecostal Faith in 1956.
While continuing her education and was able to complete High School. Douglas was called to the ministry in 1964, and in 1971, he heeded to the call to pastor. Thus, the Greater Cornerstone Church of God in Christ was founded. Lorine felt the need to prepare herself to assist her husband in the ministry, so attained her license as an Evangelist Missionary under State Mother Morrris. She later completed (while working the graveyard shift ) the program for Licensed Vocational Nursing at the United School of Nursing of the Inland Empire in 1969, and worked for the Loma Linda University Medical Center for approximately seven years. While raising her five daughters, Lorine became a foster parent of two small boys, Douglas and Tony, and one teenager, Linda Reams. In 1976, she became a childcare specialist working for the State of California and housed six developmentally disabled individuals. She loved her foster children as her own, and the developmentally disabled individuals (she cared for many) became family members to her. They all love her very much and call her “Mom.” She indeed was born with a “Mother’s” spirit, and has mothered and continues to mother countless individuals who grace her in her life.
In 1985, Lorine founded the Cornerstone Christian Preschool because she vowed in her heart that she would help children to attend school, “that no child would have the problem she experienced in wanting to go to school and learn, but could not because of her socio-economic status.” Lorine also felt the need to protect her grandchildren who were floating between numerous impersonal and unfamiliar babysitters, and she wanted a facility where the. saints of God, and the community parents could leave their children without worrying about their welfare.
She wanted to provide a facility where parents would feel secure in knowing that their children would receive a Christian foundation in their primary learning experiences. She hired a director for the school while she continued her education at San Bernardino Valley College to become a preschool director for the Cornerstone Christian Preschool. From 1991 to 2002, the preschool was expanded to a grade school facility providing education free to children from grades K-6th, which also provided before and after-school care and off-track care. This program was terminated due to lack of funds to keep it going. However the before and after-school program and off-track seasonal programs continue to exist. In September of 2001, the program extended to include an infant care center.
Lorine developed a love for the computer and became a self-taught “computer wiz.” The school was suffering for funds to enable payment for upkeep and overhead costs. Several children were attending the school free of charge, as their parents could not pay for the services provided to them. Most of the students come from low income or single parent family households. So, through the use of computers, she began to apply for grants to help the school progress. The school has received grants from foundations such as the Weingart Foundation, and the Masonic community of San Bernardino; several Community Development Block Grants from the City of San Bernardino, and recently two grants from the Children and Families Commission of the San Bernardino County. Also when the County Hospital of San Bernardino closed, they donated kitchen appliances and utensils, and a sofa. The preschool also received four grants along with computers and office supplies from the TRW/ECHO Committee, and a grant from the Bank of America, of Riverside. The school continues to thrive thanks to the support from these sources.
Because of Lorine’s contribution to the Community of San Bernardino, in April of 2002, the Board of Directors of the Cornerstone Christian Preschool, Inc. decided to change the name of the agency to Lorine’s Learning Academy, Inc.dba Cornerstone Christian Academy Inc.
Lorine has untiringly and relentlessly worked to provide care to children, the disabled, to the homeless and orphaned (who all call her “mom” or “Mother Hargrave”), and to the community at large in the County of San Bernardino. She has provided employment to numerous individuals in the job classifications of assistant administrators, preschool directors, preschool teachers, elementary teachers, teaching assistants, accountants and bookkeepers, administrative secretaries, housekeepers, cooks, maintenance workers, van drivers. She has donated all of her time and efforts, but has received no compensation or pay in return for the hard work she has provided to this community for 27 years.
