Search for celebrities on Ancestry.com!December 11, 2001
Karen Hartman
Kindergarten teacher Karen Hartman grappled for eight years with the ravages of cancer, many days going to class though it was difficult just getting out of bed.
Hartman continued working with her students at Petaluma's La Tercera School until just more than a month ago. She died Saturday at age 45.
Her husband, Jeffrey, with whom she celebrated a wedding 25th anniversary on Nov. 20, said she was thoroughly dedicated to kindergarten and to the youngsters in her charge.
"She thought it was so important to get them started on the right foot," he said. He said his wife never let her disease stop her from pushing to find new approaches to teaching.
Karen Hartman was born in Angels Camp and came to Santa Rosa as a child.
She taught the past four years at La Tercera. Prior to that she was a teacher for three years at Sebastopol Christian School.
Before becoming a teacher she worked about 10 years as a teacher's aide at Healdsburg's Fitch Mountain, Westside and Healdsburg elementary schools.
Her husband said she worked constantly on new programs, lessons and other opportunities for learning. She regularly attended International Kindergarten Conferences.
"She was always willing to do something for somebody, not just talk about it," Jeffrey Hartman said.
Karen Hartmans was diagnosed with breast cancer in March of 1993. Despite the debilitating and sickening effects of the treatments and of the disease, which spread to her bones and liver, she remained upbeat and kept teaching.
In addition to her husband, she is survived by her daughter, Melissa Linnet Hartman of Santa Rosa; her mother, Janet Louise Wagner of Oakhurst, and her stepfather, Bill Wagner, also of Oakhurst.
Coronation Services are at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Assembly of God Church in Sebastopol. Visitation is from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Sebastopol's Parent-Sorenson Mortuary.
Hartman's family suggests memorial contributions to the American Cancer Society, 1415 Guerneville Road, Santa Rosa 95403.
Duane Ringler
Duane Ringler, who came to Santa Rosa fresh out of high school in Pennsylvania and worked decades as a heavy equipment operator, died Dec. 3 in Nevada. He was 69.
Ringler spent 20 years of his career with the former Basalt Rock Co. in Healdsburg. A disability forced his retirement in 1971.
He had lived for 52 years in Santa Rosa when he and his wife, Joyce, relocated 10 years ago to Sparks, Nev. He loved little more than to spend the day tending his yard and garden.
He served four years with the U.S. Navy before starting his career as an operating engineer.
In addition to his wife of 42 years, Ringler is survived by his son, Brian Ringer of Santa Rosa; daughter, Mauri Gilmore of Reno; and seven grandchildren.
No services are planned.
Don Tennant, created cereal icon
"That's my boy," Don Tennant always said with justifiable pride as he drove past the cereal maker's headquarters in Battle Creek, Mich., or walked down the cornflakes aisle of any grocery store on the planet.
The "boy" was Kellogg's lovable Tony the Tiger, his brainchild of 1952.
"I don't know that Tony is the best thing I've ever done, but it sure gives me a kick to see how well he's aged," he said in 1988. "(Seeing) his face on the Frosted Flakes box . . . can make my whole day."
Tennant, the versatile ad man who not only created such sales icons as Tony the Tiger, but also gave the Marlboro Man his memorable name and place in the American lexicon and coined such catchy tunes as "Nuthin' says lovin' like something from the oven," has died. He was 79.
Tennant died Saturday at his Los Angeles home. No cause of death was given.
Throughout his half-century career, Tennant found entertaining ways to sell products and services for international brands such as Kellogg's, Nestle, Green Giant, Pillsbury, Keebler, Campbell's Soup, United Airlines and Procter & Gamble.
Born in Sterling, Ill., he earned a degree at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., and then served as a Navy lieutenant during World War II. Moving to Chicago after the war, he began his career writing and producing for network radio programs.
It was Tennant who wrote the Pillsbury jingle equating baking with love and urged travelers to "Fly the friendly skies of United."
December 9, 2001
Sol Fishman
Sol Fishman, a Petaluma chicken rancher who founded the largest family-owned janitorial supply company in the North Bay, died Friday of complications from a blood disorder. He was 83.
A year after Fishman was born in San Francisco, his family moved to Petaluma and began ranching. After graduating from Petaluma High School in 1936, Fishman continued to work with his father while taking correspondence courses in accounting.
Fishman enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1942 and shipped out to the South Pacific. Although he was trained as an aircraft mechanic, his commanding officers made him the company clerk when they learned of his typing skills.
During the war, he corresponded with a romantic interest from Philadelphia. He had met her before the war when she visited relatives in California, and they marriage in 1946.
Sol and Rose Fishman settled in Petaluma and operated a chicken ranch. But by 1965, he had made up his mind to find a more profitable enterprise. The couple opened Fishman Supply Co., which initially consisted of nothing more than the old granary and a pickup.
"Their skills complemented each other," said son William Fishman. His father was the organizer, he said, while his mother "had the chutzpah to go out and sell anything."
One of their four sons now runs the company, which has grown into a multimillion-dollar enterprise with about 40 employees.
Fishman and his wife also were active in Congregation B'nai Israel.
As his health declined over the past two years, Fishman found strength and buoyed others with his sense of humor. "He was real tough through it all. He never gave up," William Fishman said.
Over the years, Fishman was a member of the Penngrove school board, the Petaluma school board and the Petaluma Valley Hospital Foundation board. He also was active in other charitable organizations.
In addition to William, he is survived by sons Leland Fishman of Penngrove, Gregg Fishman of Sacramento and Neal Fishman of Piedmont; brothers Julius Fishman of Petaluma and Morris Fishman of Seattle; sister Selma Cader of Petaluma; seven grandchildren; and his companion, Dorothy Pathman.
Rose Fishman died in 1997.
A funeral service will be at 1 p.m. today at the Parent-Sorensen Mortuary & Crematory at Magnolia Avenue and Keokuk Street in Petaluma.
December 8, 2001
Loretta Bettinelli
Former schoolteacher Loretta Bettinelli, who started her 42-year career instructing youngsters at tiny country schools west of Petaluma, died Thursday. She was 96.
Fun-loving but strict and demanding in front of a class, Bettinelli taught from 1926 until 1968 at schools in Valley Ford, Chileno Valley and Petaluma.
She was born in Novato to a pioneer Marin County ranching family and grew up in Nicasio. One of 12 children of the late Henry and Elizabeth Rogers, she remained close all her life to her many brothers and sisters.
She graduated from Petaluma's St. Vincent de Paul High School and went on to San Francisco Normal School, the current San Francisco State University, for her teaching credential.
After teaching for a number of years in country schools in west Sonoma and Marin counties, she transferred to Petaluma and worked at Washington and McNear schools.
She and her late husband, Lawrence Bettinelli, lived in Chileno Valley and in Point Reyes before moving to Petaluma in 1941.
In their free time, they enjoyed traveling to Lake Tahoe and gathering with family. Loretta Bettinelli also loved to play bridge and knit.
Lawrence Bettinelli died in the mid-1970s.
Loretta Bettinelli is survived by her daughters, Claire Lucchesi and Joan Silva, and sons Lauren Bettinelli and James Bettinelli, all of Petaluma; a sister, Elinore Cheda of San Rafael; eight grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Monday at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Petaluma. Entombment will be at Calvary Catholic Cemetery.
A vigil service will be at 4 p.m. Sunday.
Bettinelli's family suggests memorial contributions to St. Vincent de Paul High School, P.O. Box 517, Petaluma 94953, or to favorite charities.
December 7, 2001
Sidney Kelley, 92
Sidney H. "Buster" Kelley, who built the world's largest used car business by the 1940s and helped develop the Kelley Blue Book as the bible of automobile values, has died. He was 92.
Kelley died Wednesday at the Norco home of his daughter, Deborah Sanchez.
A resident of Huntington Beach, Kelley had been battling cancer and related illnesses for several years, said his son, Robert.
"Dad was a goer, always saying, 'Let's go for it,' " Robert Kelley said. "He was very innovative. If told he couldn't do something, he'd ask, 'Why not?'"
Kelley was among the first auto dealers to take to the new medium called TV some 50 years ago. He was featured in the commercials, showing off his huge Los Angeles car lot and ticking off prices of cars for sale.
He also pioneered the five-year auto loan, offered auto insurance and extended warranties and started an auto club for customers. At its peak after World War II, the Kelley Kar Co. had 600 employees and was selling 600 used cars and 400 new cars each month, the younger Kelley said.
The success of Kelley Kar set set the stage for the increased popularity of the Kelley Blue Book, his son said.
The first Blue Book, which was published 75 years ago, has become the key reference for the automotive industry in assessing the value of new and used cars.
Buster Kelley is survived by his son, his daughter, eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
December 3, 2001
Dick Day, 67, leaves legacy of political activism
For 35 years, Santa Rosa attorney Richard "Dick" Day was the ultimate governmental watchdog and environmental leader.
Day, whose fingerprints are all over the political and environmental landscape that has shaped Sonoma County since his arrival, died Saturday at Kaiser Hospital. He was 67.
The cause of death is undetermined.
His son, Doug Day, said Sunday that his father was driving home Nov. 13 from a visit with family in Oregon when he stopped at a hospital in Klamath Falls complaining of abdominal pain.
It turned out to be a leak in his aorta and he was airlifted to UC Medical Center in San Francisco, where he had a stent inserted on Nov. 16. He was transported by ambulance to Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa Wednesday to recuperate further, his son said.
"Everything was looking good," said the younger Day, who said his father died unexpectedly at around 4:20 a.m. Saturday. Services are pending.
The Idaho-born Day arrived in Rohnert Park in 1968, a 32-year-old attorney fresh out of U.C. Berkeley's Boalt School of Law.
He had barely set foot on Sonoma County soil when he won election to the Sonoma County Board of Education in 1969, and just a year later sought election to the county Board of Supervisors.
He lost and later moved to Santa Rosa, but his campaign set a tone for the three decades of political activism that followed when he urged that he and his opponents abandon their use of campaign signs, charging they were a blight on the landscape that did nothing to inform voters about the issues.
It was, in a sense, Day's warning shot that it was the issues that mattered, nothing else. From that time on, if there was a major political or environmental fight in Sonoma County, it's almost certain Day was going to be involved.
"He was my hero," said his son, a teacher in Santa Rosa's Mark West School District. "If he believed in something, he would put out the effort. He didn't ask others to do it. He walked the talk."
During his more than nearly four decades of activism, Day's legal and political skills helped open the state's coastline to public access; surrounded eight of the county's cities with voter-approved boundaries to protect against urban sprawl; pushed adoption of stricter campaign finance laws by the county and Santa Rosa; and fought all attempts to pass a sales tax increase to widen Highway 101 without the benefit of other transit improvements.
His skills, said good friend Bill Kortum, a former county supervisor considered the father of Sonoma County's environmental movement, were even more amazing considering he often was fighting underdog causes against entrenched forces.
Who else would take on the chairmanship of Sen. John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in the Republican-dominated bastion of Orange County?
"Dick was quite capable of sticking his neck out," Kortum said. "It was a classic case of the role he played."
Kortum's own group, Californians Organized to Acquire Access to State Tidelands, was fighting county attempts to keep 13 miles of beachfront as the exclusive domain of the Sea Ranch community in the late '60s.
Kortum credits Day's legal acumen with convincing the state Supreme Court to order county supervisors to reverse that decision, and for COAAST's successful statewide ballot measure that formed the California Coastal Commission and guaranteed public access to beaches.
Part of Day's power came from the pulpit of two groups he helped form. Sonoma County Conservation Action, the county's largest environmental lobbying group, has worked on anti-sprawl measures, while Concerned Citizens for Santa Rosa won city support in 1992 to restrict construction to 1,000 homes a year, after years of runaway growth.
"He was in on all the big issues," said longtime friend Kate Sater, a member of Conservation Action's board of directors.
"He was never afraid to challenge people on the issues," she said.
His list of losses was just as impressive. Battles to stop construction of Warms Spring Dam and the incorporation of Windsor on growth-related grounds, and the failure to win support for district elections in Santa Rosa to lessen the political dominance of one geographic segment of the city were among them.
His most painful loss, however, was more personal. A lifelong Democrat and integral part of the county's Democratic Party machinery, Day was appointed to fill a Sonoma County Municipal Court judge vacancy in 1979 by then-Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown.
A year later he lost the judgeship when a deputy district attorney challenged him for the seat in a mid-year election.
Day rarely minced words. He said what he thought and was quick to protest what he perceived as government wrongdoing or misguidedness.
But even those he often battled with, including former Santa Rosa City Manager Ken Blackman -- whom Day once accused of running an "anti-democratic" form of city government -- said every city needs its Day.
"At times I don't think his criticisms were completely justified, but there needs to be somebody on the other side," Blackman said.
"There needs to be a Dick Day or someone like him raising questions and challenging those making the decisions. Our system works best when it has those checks and balances," he said.
Santa Rosa Councilwoman Noreen Evans credits Day for helping her successful effort to get county supervisors and her own council to adopt stricter campaign finance laws.
Besides that and other changes Day helped bring about, Evans said, he leaves one other important legacy: "the number of public officials in all nine cities and the county he helped elect who will carry forward the vision he had," she said.
Day is survived by his son, five brothers and sisters and one grandson. His wife, Jean, a retired Sonoma State University librarian, died last year.
November 28, 2001
Richard S. Lieb, a prominent Petaluma architect and civic leader who helped shape the city during a long career of building design and volunteer service, died Saturday at his Petaluma home. He was 69.
November 26, 2001
LOS ANGELES -- William Read Woodfield, who produced and wrote episodes of television's "Mission: Impossible" and "Shaft," and photographed Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra and Jayne Mansfield, has died, his wife said Sunday. He was 73.
November 25, 2001
Celeste Coe
Celeste "Pearl" Coe, who owned Hamilton's Sales Co. in Santa Rosa, died of complications following a stroke Tuesday at Memorial Hospital. She was 85.
Coe was born in Indiana, where she met her first husband, Hubert Hamilton.
They moved to Daly City in the late 1940s and opened a dry cleaning business there. Coe was handy with a needle.
"She used to love to sew," said her daughter, Deborah Chandler of Healdsburg. "She made all of our clothes when we were kids."
After relocating to Santa Rosa in 1958, the couple launched another business, Hamilton's Sales Co., at the south end of Santa Rosa Avenue. They specialized in new and used hardware.
Pearl and Hubert Coe shared a love of travel. They saw much of the world together, including biblical sites in the Middle East.
Hubert Hamilton died in 1984. Shortly thereafter, Pearl met Robert Coe, who was recently widowed.
Pearl and Robert were marriage in November 1988. "She was a beautiful woman. Man, she was good-looking," Robert Coe recalled.
They enjoyed walking together until Pearl suffered her first stroke several years ago. She suffered another stroke in September and was bed-ridden.
She and her husband celebrated their wedding anniversary this month in a hospital room.
"I took her some roses," Robert Coe said. "And she kissed me 24 times. There were 24 roses."
Coe, who was a member of the Santa Rosa Bible Church, enjoyed church events and spending time with her congregation.
In addition to her husband and daughter, she is survived by a son, Stephen Hamilton of Sacramento; a brother-in-law, Wib Hollingsworth of Santa Rosa; and three grandchildren.
Services will be at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Eggen and Lance Mortuary at 1540 Mendocino Ave. in Santa Rosa.
Joseph Furia
Joseph Louis Furia, a lifelong resident of Sonoma County and an accomplished stonemason, died Wednesday at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center of complications following heart surgery. He was 75.
"Joe," as he was known, was born to Sebastopol farmers. His father died when he was 4, forcing him to grow up quickly.
"He worked as soon as he was old enough to help his mother," said his wife, Virginia Furia. That usually meant tending the chickens.
He joined the Army just as World War II ended, and was stationed in Japan.
After he returned, he delivered milk for Clover Dairy and worked as a journeyman carpenter. He soon settled into his life's work, masonry, which he performed for 36 years.
"He was really a craftsman," and his specialty was stonework, his wife said.
Furia enjoyed camping with his family. He had two daughters and a third "adopted" daughter, Susan Matthews of Santa Rosa, who lived nearby.
He was an outdoorsman, and he loved experiencing nature with his wife.
"Anything he did, I did too," Virginia Furia said. And those activities were numerous.
"He and I loved fishing. We could sit on a boat all day," she said.
They also hunted elk and deer in Wyoming, gardened a quarter-acre plot, and shared many other activities.
"When he put a new roof on the garage, he and I did it," she said.
Furia's daughters described him as "gregarious." He loved to talk, to tell a story.
"If we were out to dinner with a group of people, he entertained them all," his wife said.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by two daughters, Betty Clark and Dana Furia, both of Santa Rosa; two sisters, Mary Rossi of Santa Rosa and Olga Kraiter of Klamath Falls, Ore.; and two grandchildren.
The funeral will be at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at Lafferty and Smith Colonial Chapel at 4321 Sonoma Highway, Santa Rosa. Visitation will be from noon to 7 p.m. Tuesday at the chapel.
