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Early life and education

Richard Anderson[2] was born in Boston on February 10, 1941,[3] the son of college student Richard Boynton and Dorothy Anderson, 18 and 15 years old, respectively.[4] He was born with rickets and mildly bent legs, as Anderson had starved herself to keep the pregnancy a secret.[5]

Shortly after he was born, he was given to The Home for Little Wanderers, an orphanage in Boston.[2] The home ran a classified ad about him in the local papers, under the headline: "Home Wanted for Foundling." Florence Moberger, a housewife in Malden, was the only person to respond.[5][6] She and her husband Carl had three children but were unable to have more.[7] Carl and Florence agreed to foster Richard until a family wanted to adopt him. He lived with the Mobergers for over two years and stated that he developed a deep bond with the family. During that time, he claimed many prospective parents came to visit him, including his birth mother, posing as her own sister.[5] In 1943, Richard Boynton attempted to persuade Dorothy Anderson to accompany him in stealing their baby and get married; when she refused on the grounds that she was a junior in high school and nobody but her parents knew about the baby, he shot and killed himself two blocks from her house.[5]

That same year, he was adopted by Warner Carlson, a wool broker and his wife, Ruth, and took their surname.[2][6] Carlson's adoptive father died when he was twelve.[8]

Carlson graduated from the Naval Academy Preparatory School and attended the University of Mississippi through an ROTC program, holding odd jobs in between the breaks.[8] He was discharged in 1962 and did not graduate.[9][8] He then moved to Los Angeles.

Personal life

In 1967, Carlson married artist Lisa McNear (née Lombardi). They had two sons, Tucker McNear Carlson (later, Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson), born in 1969, and Buckley Peck Carlson (later, Buckley Swanson Peck Carlson).[38] Carlson and Lombardi divorced in 1976.[38][39] Carlson was granted custody of Tucker and Buckley. Tucker Carlson would later say that his mother left the family when he was six, wanting to pursue a "bohemian" lifestyle.[40][41]

In 1979, Carlson married Patricia Caroline Swanson, an heiress to the Swanson frozen-food fortune. Swanson was the daughter of Gilbert Carl Swanson, and the niece of Senator J. William Fulbright.[41][42] This was the third marriage for Swanson, who legally adopted Tucker Carlson and his brother.[43][42]

Carlson was said to be an active father who had a specific outlook in raising his sons:

I want them to be self-disciplined to the degree that I think is necessary to find satisfaction ... you measure a person on how far they go, on how far they've sprung. My parents, the Carlsons, they instilled a modesty in me that, at times, gets in my way ... I know it's immodest of me to say it, but it's difficult sometimes when you want to beat your own drum and say what you really think.

In 1984, Carlson was in business with Karon Luce, wife of savings and loan executive Gordon Luce, manufacturing modular cabinets.[8]

Carlson and his wife lived in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and in a small Virginia town on the Chesapeake Bay. They had a summer home on an island in Maine.[44]

Carlson died from pneumonia at his home in Boca Grande, Florida, on March 24, 2025, at the age of 84.[2]

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5758617&forum_id=2Elisa#49158596)