Detroit — Countless people turn to the rosary when in need.
But, in response to recent devastation in Japan, longtime St. Joan of Arc Parishioner Dorothy LaFave is doing it in more ways than one.
LaFave — whose son, Royal Anthony (Butch) LaFave, lives with his wife in northern Japan — is the foundress and owner of Cleopatra’s Inc. jewelry company in St. Clair Shores.
With a new rosary named after the Holy Mother of Akita, she is raising money for victims of Japan’s earthquakes and tsunamis.
“I wanted to do something to be helpful,” said Dorothy, a longtime parishioner of St. Joan of Arc Parish in St. Clair Shores.
As ocean water ripped through cities and villages in Japan, injuring and killing people, destroying buildings and carrying away cars, Dorothy and her husband Roy LaFave knew their son was in the midst of it. After a 20-year career in the military, he moved there and currently lives there with his wife.
“It was four o’clock in the morning our time when we heard about it,” she said, recalling her relief when she and her husband heard Butch’s voice on the answering machine. “He was OK.”
In the days that followed, however, she and Roy heard more about the disaster’s effects.
And, like the rest of the country, through the media, learned more about how bad things were. Her son said the people needed money in order to help recover.
Limited in what she could send herself, Dorothy turned to rosary beads for help.
Through her company, Dorothy already had been used to making rosaries — in more than 200 different styles, in fact.
With some research, she learned of Marian apparitions involving Sr. Agnes Sasagawa, who in 1973 received messages from the Blessed Mother in Akita, Japan. In 1984, the bishop of the diocese, verifying after an extensive investigation that a supernatural communication did take place, authorized veneration of the Holy Mother of Akita. Pope Benedict XVI — then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — deemed the Akita apparitions worthy of belief in 1988.
Today, Dorothy sells the rosary — made out of freshwater pearls, tiger eye jade, black onyx and other precious materials — for $60. Profits will be sent to assistance agencies in Japan.
Cleopatra’s wares, both rosaries and jewelry, can be found at 100 stores in 10 different states. Locally, LaFave’s products can be purchased at or ordered through the Solanus Casey Center book store, and the Catholic Supply House in Warren.
