Mrs. Lorraine Cardoza Fraga of Palm Desert, formerly of Modesto and Visalia, passed away Wednesday, September 16, 2009 in her home at the age of 90. Mrs. Fraga was born January 26, 1919 in Visalia, the third child of Leunor DeBrum Fagundes Cardoza and Francisco Vieira Cardoza. Lorraine graduated from Visalia Union High School, Class of 1936. She took the usual courses but the ones that she enjoyed the most were related to her future life as a homemaker. In her generation valued womanly skills were sewing, crocheting, cooking, canning, soap-making, sausage-making and similar skills necessary before grocery stores and department stores were available. She learned these skills as well as newer ones such as, sewing from patterns, cooking with pressure-cookers, driving automobiles and similar modern ways of the 1930s. In April 1938, she married the "love of her life", the late Anthony Fraga at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Visalia and together they started a family in his home town of Gustine. They remained in the Central Valley area for the next thirty years. In 2001 after the death of Anthony, Lorraine moved in with her youngest daughter Kathleen in Temple City where she helped raise her two youngest grandsons. In 2004, they moved to Palm Desert. During her married life, she traveled extensively with her family throughout California, the U.S and on trips to the Holy Land, Greece, Italy, Portugal and the Azores. She will be best remembered as a loving and devoted wife, mother and grandmother. Her life was always devoted to her family and her family returned that devotion. She was blessed with their care in her later years in the full circle of love that she showed them when they were all but infants and small children in the world and she nurtured and cherished them. May God bless her now. She will be dearly missed. She is survived by her daughters, Lorraine Holton and her husband Jack; Bernadine Hake and her husband Rick and Kathleen Porter all of Palm Desert; and by her son, Edward Fraga and wife Carol of Topanga; two sisters, Eleanor Brindeiro of Turlock; LaVern Lourenco of Visalia; 7 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband Anthony Fraga in 1998, a brother, Frank Cardoza and a sister, Anita Cardoza Brindeiro. A mass of Christian burial will be held Monday, September 21, 2009, 10:00 a.m. at St. Mary's Catholic Church, followed by interment at Visalia District Cemetery. A rosary will be held on Sunday 6:00 p.m. at Salser & Dillard Funeral Chapel and visitation will be at 3:00 p.m. at Salser and Dillard Funeral Chapel.