Search for celebrities on Ancestry.com!December 8, 2003
Donna Sue Causley
As a critical care nurse, a profession where burnout is common and few people last for an entire career, Donna Sue Causley was a role model who made nursing her life.
Causley, a nurse for nearly 30 years who had worked at Petaluma Valley Hospital since the facility first opened, died Dec. 4 at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital after a short illness. She was 57.
"She was a nurse. That was her huge life commitment," said Donna Greely, a friend and co-worker of Causley's since the 1970s. "She got a lot of sense of pride from it. She liked being in a service position. I think there was a draw to helping others."
Causley was born and raised in Highland Park, Mich., and moved to the Bay Area in the 1970s. She settled in Petaluma, where she worked at Hillcrest Hopsital before Petaluma Valley opened in 1980.
Causley was a devoted caregiver, teaching and mentoring other nurses, volunteering at free clinics, writing procedures and constantly absorbed in learning more about her profession, Greely said. Causley worked in the critical care unit during her entire career. She was named Petaluma Valley's Employee of the Year in the late 1990s.
Patients and their families grew to know her over the years, sending her cards and flowers and asking for her when they were admitted to the hospital.
Nursing was her passion, but it wasn't her whole life, Greely said. Causley loved to travel and was a talented bowler who participated in league play. But her favorite activity was going on cruises -- she went at least twice a year, and always took along a friend or family member.
"She liked the royal treatment. She liked the massages and the fancy dinners and the dressing up," Greely said. "She liked to travel, she liked to see different parts of the world, and meet interesting and eccentric people. She wasn't afraid to go off by herself and do something if she wanted to do it."
Causley is survived by her good friend of 29 years, Thomas Kane of Petaluma; a sister, Paula Gambill of Michigan; a brother, Ralph Causley of Michigan; two nieces; a great-niece; and a great-nephew.
A memorial service will be held Wednesday at 11 a.m. at Parent-Sorensen Mortuary & Crematory, at Magnolia Avenue and Keokuk Street in Petaluma.
Contributions may be made to Hospice of Petaluma, 416 Payran St., Petaluma, 94952.
December 7, 2003
Francisco B. Macias, a handyman who lived in Sonoma County for 34 years, died Friday after a brief illness. He was 57.
December 5, 2003
Masonic and memorial services are Sunday for Elza Ridley "Al" Miller, a retired construction contractor, who died Nov. 30.
December 4, 2003
Frank Anderson
Frank L. "Andy" Anderson, former Forestville Citizen of the Year and lead developer of the Forestville Youth Park, died Nov. 30 after a brief battle with cancer. He was 83.
Anderson, a longtime town booster, was a past member and active supporter of many community groups, including the Forestville Chamber of Commerce, Forestville Odd Fellows, Western Sonoma County United Way, the Forestville Union Elementary School District board of trustees, the Sebastopol Rotary Club and El Molino Little League.
He spearheaded development of the Forestville Youth Park in the 1960s. Instrumental in the purchase of the property, the park design and its subsequent growth, Anderson was a fixture at every annual park barbecue. He was a three-time president of the Youth Park Board.
Born in Spartunburg County, S.C., on July 12, 1920, to John Marshall Anderson and Miriam Lavinia Schell, Anderson was the eldest of three children.
After graduating from Reidville High School, Anderson joined the Army Air Corps -- the precursor of the Air Force. He signed on as a mechanic during World War II, but worked his way into Aviation Cadet School and graduated in 1945. He went on to teach approximately 80 pilots to fly B-25 bombers.
After leaving the service, he moved to California, sight unseen, to work in the aviation industry. He eventually moved to Santa Rosa, where he met and marriage Virginia Ross of Forestville in 1948 and took a job with PG&E.
Anderson spent 10 years building a home on the Ross family property in Forestville while moving through the ranks at PG&E. He spent more than three decades with the company, starting as a surveyor and eventually retiring in 1979 in the post of marketing manager.
In retirement, Anderson converted the George F. Ross Apple Ranch to the 12-acre Anderson-Ross Vineyard, where he remained active in daily operations until his health deteriorated in September.
But Anderson's primary focus throughout his life was his family, according to his son, Frank L. Anderson, co-principal at El Molino High School in Forestville.
"Our dad was the consummate family man. He did everything he could possibly do to support our family," he said. "We are a very, very close family, geographically as well as spiritually."
His commitment to family ran so deep, Anderson even developed a cursory interest in sports just to keep pace with his wife, who remains an avid sports enthusiast, his son said.
"My mom is a big sports fan, so we watch the 49ers games or Giants games. He would always learn just enough to be conversant, then bang, he would be out in the barn doing something or fixing something," he said. "He always found something to be busy with, always had a project started, semi-finished or planned to be started."
In addition to his son, Anderson is survived by his wife, Virginia "Ginny" Anderson of Forestville; daughter, Peggy E. Corrigan of Santa Rosa; sister, Elizabeth Eppes Anderson of Clinton, S.C.; four grandchildren; and numerous cousins, nieces and nephews.
Friends and family are invited to attend a funeral service at 2 p.m. Friday at Sebastopol Community Church, 1000 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol. Visitation will begin at 1:30 p.m. Interment will be at Forestview Cemetery.
Memorial contributions in Anderson's name may be made to Forestville Youth Park, P.O. 537, Forestville 95436.
December 3, 2003
Reginald Porter
Reginald "Reg" Porter, a botanist and academic by trade whose love of gardens also was his passion, died of heart failure Nov. 11 in Santa Rosa. He was 91.
Whether it was walking in the open air of a Sebastopol apple ranch or cultivating vegetables in small San Francisco gardens, Porter was most relaxed among the very plants he spent decades teaching about in universities around the country.
"He gardened everything," said his daughter, Ann Jeffrey. "He always had vegetable gardens, even in the city. I remember cauliflower and all the plants he grew there."
Raised in Belle Fourche, S.D., where there typically is heavy snowfall seven months out of the year, Porter's family members today wonder how his love affair with plants began.
"Living in that part of the country, you don't have a lot of garden," his daughter said. "But I knew he always liked plants."
After receiving a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska, Porter had the choice to attend either the UC Berkeley, or Cornell University in New York for his doctorate in botany.
Having a wife and a daughter to support in the midst of the Depression, Porter opted for Berkeley, where he could earn $40 a month working as a teaching assistant.
After graduating, he took a job teaching botany and biology at San Francisco City College during the school's first years of operation.
When World War II broke out, Porter became director of San Francisco's Victory Gardens, which helped offset food shortages.
Always of the mind-set that "educators travel," Porter would teach science at four different colleges in four different states by the end of his career. Among them were Pennsylvania State University, Sonoma State University and the University of Iowa, where he was nationally known for curriculum development in science education.
Even after retiring in 1968, Porter loved plants too much to give them up for good. He and his wife, Roseltha, whom he met and marriage in South Dakota, bought an apple ranch in Sebastopol and spent many years there. She died in 1988.
During that time, Porter also became professor emeritus at Sonoma State University, where he taught biology and supervised student science teachers.
"He really enjoyed the students and the young people," his daughter said.
He also was a docent at the Luther Burbank Gardens in Santa Rosa.
Porter was living at Spring Lake Village in Santa Rosa at the time of his death.
In addition to his daughter, Ann Jeffrey of Campbell, Porter is survived by daughter Elizabeth Jones of Columbia; son Tom Porter of Ann Arbor, Mich.; eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be on Sunday, Dec. 14, at 3 p.m. in the Spring Lake Village Chapel, 5555 Montgomery Drive, Santa Rosa.
Ethel Winant
LOS ANGELES -- Ethel Winant, an Emmy and Peabody award-winning television producer who made history as the first woman to hold an executive position at a network, has died. She was 81. Winant died Saturday at the West Hills Hospital and Medical Center of complications from a heart attack and stroke she had suffered nearly a month earlier.
Over the years, Winant won numerous accolades, including a special Emmy for "Playhouse 90," two Peabodys, the Humanitas Prize, the Christopher Award, the Alice Award and the Crystal Award from Women in Film. In 1999, Winant was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
December 2, 2003
Alvin Piazza
Alvin A. "Manny" Piazza was born on a dairy ranch in the hamlet of Bodega, serving as fire chief and unofficial mayor of the coastal town he called home for 73 years.
Piazza died Saturday of a heart attack while driving back from Valley Ford, where he had made his daily trek to feed cattle at his son's ranch.
A native and lifelong resident of Bodega, Piazza was a fixture in the coastal town where he was often called upon to repair pumps and tractors for neighbors. He was among the first volunteers serving with the Bodega fire department when it was organized in 1946. In 1985 he was elected Bodega's fire chief, serving for a decade.
Since his retirement from the construction business eight years ago, Piazza was a regular at The Casino, a tavern that serves as Bodega's city hall and gathering place.
"Manny was an icon in this town. He liked everybody and everybody liked him. Oh, he could be blunt and opinionated, but you always knew what he was thinking," said his sister, Evelyn Casini of Bodega, proprietor of The Casino.
Piazza was the youngest of five children of the late Giuseppe Piazza and Catherine Piazza Perry, who is 95 and now a resident of Sebastopol. Piazza's family settled in Bodega in 1905, operating a dairy ranch on Bay Hill Road.
Piazza grew up milking cows and working the land, developing the mechanical skills and work ethic that would be his trademark.
"He could fix anything. If anybody needed anything they would call Manny," said his wife, Amelia Piazza of Bodega. She said he also was devoted to his family, working hard for decades to carve a good life on the Sonoma Coast.
Piazza attended Bodega's old Potter School, the classic schoolhouse where Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" was filmed. He attended Tomales High School and worked on the family ranch before joining the Army and serving for two years.
After he left the service, he ran a small dairy while working as a loader operator at the Chenoweth Lumber Mill in Bodega for 10 years. He then joined the operating engineers and went to work for the John W. Bickery Co., where he supervised highway construction projects from the Oregon border to Mexico. He later worked for Argonaut Construction of Santa Rosa, retiring about eight years ago.
"When he retired, he was just happy to be home in Bodega. He would make the rounds between Bodega, Valley Ford and Bodega Bay," his wife said.
She said one of his great joys was helping his son and grandsons with their registered cattle herd. He also enjoyed hunting in the hills around Bodega.
In addition to his wife and sister, Piazza is survived by his sons, Michael Piazza of Portland, Ore., and James Piazza of Penngrove; his mother, Catherine Perry of Sebastopol; his brothers, Alfred Piazza of Bodega and Joseph Piazza of Sebastopol; and five grandsons.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Friday at St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church in Bodega. Burial is at Calvary Cemetery in Bodega.
A vigil service will be held at 7:45 p.m. Thursday at Parent-Sorensen Mortuary in Sebastopol.
Visitation will begin after 10 a.m. Thursday at the mortuary.
The family suggests memorial contributions to the Bodega Volunteer Fire Dept. Building Fund, Bodega 94922.
Willard Sheard
Willard F. Sheard, a Kashia Pomo and lifelong resident of the Kashia Reservation at Stewarts Point in Sonoma County, died Thursday. He was 73.
Born Jan. 28, 1930, to William and Elizabeth Pinole Sheard, Willard Sheard was one of 12 children, three of whom died in infancy.
Sheard marriage at 19 and enlisted in the Army at 20. He served two years during the Korean War, then returned to the reservation and his job as a logger, according to his sister, Grace Pike of Santa Rosa.
"He just liked the quiet of it," she said of the reservation. "No noise, nobody bothers you, no traffic. I think he just loved it up there and it's all he ever knew."
Sheard had two children with his first wife, Beverly, but after their marriage ended in divorce his wife reared the two boys out of state, Pike said.
With his second wife, Annie, Sheard had six more children. When that marriage ended in divorce, Sheard spent time visiting his children both on and off the reservation.
He also became increasingly close to his numerous nieces and nephews, Pike said. Sheard frequently made the drive from the reservation to Santa Rosa for family gatherings, she said.
"He loved football, the 49ers. That was our thing together," she said. "He was always around, coming down and watching the football game."
In the late 1960s, Sheard left logging and began a series of temporary jobs until he signed on with the community health center on the reservation. It was in that work he found his calling, Pike said.
"At first he was transporting patients to help them to doctors appointments. He also worked for the brown-bag service, where he delivered food to seniors once a week," she said. "He was always on alert there, in case anything happened, but I think he was the type of person who wouldn't admit when things touched him."
Sheard died at home after a short battle with liver cancer.
In addition to his sister, Sheard is survived by his sons, William, Joseph and Leonard; his daughter, Tanya; his brother, Mike Kephart; his sisters, Marva Sheard and Elizabeth Purdue; 11 grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Services will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday, at Parent-Sorensen Mortuary, 301 S. Main St., Sebastopol. Viewing will be from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. today at the mortuary. Burial will be on the Kashia Reservation.
Earl Bellamy, 86, TV director
Earl Bellamy, a prolific television director who amassed more than 1,600 episode credits ranging from "The Lone Ranger" to "Leave It to Beaver" and from "I Spy" to "MASH," has died. He was 86.
Bellamy died of a heart attack Sunday evening at a hospital in Albuquerque, N.M. He had lived in nearby Rio Rancho, N.M., since 1991.
In a career that began as a messenger at Columbia Pictures in 1935, Bellamy launched his directing career with "Seminole Uprising," a 1955 Columbia Western starring George Montgomery.
Bellamy directed about 20 feature films, including "Incident at Phantom Hill" and the Tony Randall comedy "Fluffy."
But, as Bellamy once said, "I got hooked on television," and it was in television that he became one of the most respected and sought-after directors.
The 1950s and early '60s were known for the proliferation of TV Westerns, and Bellamy directed many of them, including "The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin," "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon," "Wagon Train," "Rawhide," "Daniel Boone" and "The Virginian."
In 2002, he received a Golden Boot Award from the Motion Picture and Television Fund for his contributions to the Western film genre.
But Bellamy was equally at home with such diverse fare as "The Donna Reed Show," "Bachelor Father," "Lassie," "Perry Mason," "The Andy Griffith Show," "The Munsters," "The Mod Squad," "Fantasy Island," "The Love Boat," "Eight Is Enough," "CHiPS" and "Starsky and Hutch."
"He did a lot of everything; he was a workhorse," Boyd Magers, a friend of Bellamy's who publishes Western Clippings, a film publication, told the Los Angeles Times on Monday. "But to me, the important thing about Earl was his irrepressible spirit. It rubbed off on everybody that he knew and came into contact with."
The son of a railroad engineer, Bellamy was born March 11, 1917, in Minneapolis. The family moved to Hollywood in 1920, and Bellamy graduated from Hollywood High School in 1935. He landed a job as a messenger at Columbia Studios, worked his way up to production clerk and, in 1939, became a second assistant director on "Blondie Takes a Vacation."
Bellamy, who retired in 1986, is survived by Gail, his wife of 26 years; three children, Earl J., Michael and Karen; five grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.
Barber Conable, 81, ex-congressman
ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Barber B. Conable Jr., a Republican congressman for 20 years who was his party's standard bearer on taxes, trade and Social Security, has died. He was 81.
Conable, who collapsed with a blood infection in September, died Sunday at a hospital in Sarasota, Fla., of complications from a staph infection, his family said. He had moved to Florida earlier this year from his longtime home in Alexander, a village southwest of Rochester.
Representing a largely rural section of western New York from 1965 to 1985, Conable rose to be senior Republican on the powerful tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee while the GOP was the minority party.
From 1986 to 1991, he was president of the World Bank, the agency that lends billions of dollars to developing nations.
Among the high points of his years in Congress were forcing through the revenue sharing law in 1972 and the Trade Reform Act of 1974, which cleared the way for U.S. negotiations on the lowering of tariff barriers.
There were bitter disappointments, none greater than the betrayal he felt during Watergate after years of loyally backing President Nixon's policies. He later refused to answer Nixon's letters or even attend his funeral.
By the time Conable departed Congress, frustration had begun to outweigh often piecemeal victories.
"Everyone has his own time frame; for me, 20 years is long enough," he said, announcing in February 1984 that he would not seek re-election.
Conable was a Marine in World War II, fighting in the battle of Iwo Jima, and in the Korean War. He practiced law in Buffalo and was elected to the New York state Senate in 1962.
He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Charlotte; four children, Anne, Emily, Sam and Jane; 11 grandchildren; and a brother, John.
October 14, 2003
Julie Bennington
Julie Marie Bennington, a teacher at Helen Lehman Elementary School in Santa Rosa, died Oct. 8 of complications from cancer. She was 44.
Born in Manchester, England, on April 21, 1959, she immigrated with her family to the United States in 1967, settling first in Pennsylvania, then coming to San Francisco.
She attended San Francisco State University, earning a degree in international relations, and marriage Victor Ramensky in 1983. The couple had two children, Natalia, born in 1986, and Alex, born in 1988. The family moved to Santa Rosa in 1990.
While her children were growing up, Bennington volunteered in their classrooms, where she discovered her own passion for teaching.
"Julie went to Sonoma State and got her teaching certificate and taught different grades in several schools, but she loved second graders. She said they had an innocent love of learning at that age," said her mother, Hazel Whiteoak of Santa Rosa.
After the Ramensky's divorced in 1998, Bennington continued to teach and devoted even more time to friends, family, gardening and her many pets, including three dogs, three cats and Billie the rat, all of whom have found new homes.
Her garden, which resembled an English country garden, included a small pond, many varieties of roses, wildflowers and a prolific vegetable bed. It was the scene of many lively get-togethers and barbecues, her mother said.
More than 300 people attended a memorial Sunday at the Wild Oak Saddle Club. Many students and their families attended the gathering, where a rocking chair from Bennington's classroom was used to receive hundreds of notes and cards.
"You always think your child is the most wonderful person in the world, but it is rare to hear others say it," Whiteoak said. "One child on Sunday said Julie made her feel like she could do anything. Parents said they felt welcome in her classroom and nearly everybody remarked on her kindness."
At the beginning of each school year, regardless of the age of her students, Bennington gave the same first-day talk. She told them that during the year she would help them to do their best, including learning to read well.
"'But the most important thing I will teach you is kindness,' she always told them," Whiteoak said. "She felt without kindness the other stuff didn't matter."
Diagnosed with cancer in early July, Bennington planned to embark on therapy to beat the disease. She completed one round of chemotherapy before succumbing to complications.
In addition to her mother and her children, Bennington is survived by her father, Bernard Bennington of Chestertown, Md.; her stepparents, Dusty Millar of Santa Rosa and Nancy Bennington of Chestertown; two brothers, Charles Bennington of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Robert Bennington of Chestertown; and a sister, Zoe Bennington of Washington, D.C. She also leaves behind her companion, William Tuttle of Santa Rosa.
Her family requests that friends plant flowers or support the humane society to honor her memory.
