Paul C. Bertrand

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Sacramento State University

Paul Bertrand Obituary

BERTRAND, Paul C.
Born July 2, 1927 to Margaret and Walter of Kankakee, IL. Passed away September 26, 2005 in Roseville, Ca. Paul moved to Los Angeles with his parents at the age of 7. He had his first job at the age of twelve selling news papers on the street corners of L.A. Completed high school at seventeen and joined the Navy. He was stationed at Catalina Island and was a chef for the officers. World War II ended and Paul received an Honorable Discharge. A graduate of Pasadena Play House, Paul led a group of actors from the Play House to Nantucket Island. His father was injured at the railroad in Roseville and he gave up his acting career and moved to Roseville to help his mother. He went to work for the Roseville Post Office and enrolled in Placer College, Auburn. His next stop was Sacramento State College. He met his wife, Dixie at Sac State drama class during summer school. She was a student and he was the assistant teacher. They married February 15, 1958. He was a member of the 20-30, Elks Lodge and Kiwanis. He worked for the Placer County Fair as Special Events Director for many years and was a Board of Director for twelve years. Paul and Dixie were volunteers for the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee for eleven years. He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Dixie, daughter, Erin and her husband Bob; grandchildren, Amber (husband Chad), Austin and Brandon; daughter Leilani and friend Ray Swartz; grandchildren Shelby, Sarah and Matthew; and son, Paul (Randy) and wife, Kristen and granddaughters Rachel and Samantha. In lieu of flowers, donations are to be made to your charity or Vitas Innovative Hospice Care. Services will be held Saturday, October 1 at 11:30am at Calvary Catholic Cemetery Chapel, 7101 Verner Avenue, Sacramento, CA, with burial to follow.
Arrangements By
Chapel of The Valley
916-797-1448

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Published by The Daily Record from Sep. 29 to Sep. 30, 2005.

Memories and Condolences
for Paul Bertrand

3 Entries

Randy Bertrand

October 7, 2005

Here is the Eulogy I wrote for my father. I'm posting it just incase anyone wanted a copy.

Dad grew up working from the age of 12 until he retired from the post office in his early 50’s.

His dream had always been to be an actor but he gave up that dream to take care of his mother after his father died.

Like every father he had his stories about how hard it was when he grew up.
But Dads was “when I was your age I walked to school bare foot in the snow up hill in both directions”

Dad was a very generous man. He gave many hours serving at the Elks, 20-30 and Kiwanis clubs. He donated thousands of dollars to charities over his lifetime. Whenever any of his kids or grandkids needed financial help he would gladly help. And he always gave us a good interest rate.

He loved to talk to people. He was the only person I know who actually answers the door when the Jehovah Witness come, and he would talk too them for a long time. And they would come back and talk some more!

Dad’s favorite saying whenever you asked for something he thought you really didn’t need was “People in hell want ice water too”.

Dad like to cook, I think his favorite dish was “Meet Loaf” There was only one problem with that we all hated “Meet Loaf” and he knew it.. In fact if he got mad at us he would make Meet Loaf just to get back at us. Sometimes we would have Meet Loaf 3 or 4 nights in a row. Truth was after awhile we started to like it but we never told him because we were afraid of what the next punishment meal was going to be.

Dad was a flirt. He loved to flirt with women. Weather it was the grocery store clerk , the bank teller, or even the women in our family. I’m convinced that he served 12 years on the placer county fair board just so he could flirt with the girls running for Miss Placer County.

Dad had a few pet peeves.

Shirts (ALL) shirts must have a front pocket on the left side. Don’t know how many time I heard him say he just could not understand why anyone would make a shirt with no pocket, it was just dumb..

All Coffee cups must have handles. Why would anyone make a cup with no handle?

Barking dogs even our own dogs. Drove him crazy. The barking must have been to him like fingernails on a chalkboard.

But the worst one was the Garden Hose. He is the only person I know who can swear at a hose like it just offended his mother. I remember one time I came home and he was literally cutting up the hose with a knife and splicing it back together at every point where it had kinked. There must have been 8 splices in that hose.

But my favorite story about my dad concerns a Golden retriever named Buddy. I got Buddy when I was still living at home while I was in College.
I trained him for years and he was a great dog. He would obey every command the first time, and the best part for my dad was the dog did not bark.

Dad got pretty attached to Buddy, he was retired so they spent allot of time together. Every morning Buddy would fetch his newspaper, and bring it to his chair so he could read it cover to cover, even after the Sacramento Union folded and he was forced to read the communist version of news in the Sacramento Bee.

My wife Kristen and I lived at home for about the first year of our marriage. One day I went to tell my dad we were moving out. The first words out of his mouth were “where”? I told him we had rented an apartment.
He got a bit of a grin on his face and said “you can’t take buddy to an apartment can you” No dad we can’t..
He didn’t care if we left he was just happy buddy couldn’t go with us.

About a year later we bought a house and I went to go get buddy and my dad looking very somber said to me “are you sure this is the best thing for Buddy, you know he maybe traumatized if he has to be in a new home” Well I think he’ll be ok dad.. A few years later I was talking to a neighbor and he asked me who the guy was that came over 2 to 3 times a week to play with our dog. I said what guy? Finally I figured out that it was my dad. I never said anything to him about it and as far as I know this went on for several years and 2 different houses.
When Buddy was around 14 he we had to put him down. We told our oldest daughter who was around 7 or 8 at the time. As you can imagine it was very heart breaking for all of us. Then my wife looks at me and say’s you got to go tell your dad. To which I replied no way, you do it!!

Well I did it and it was not pretty.

Now Dad and Buddy are together again and I sure pray they have tennis balls and newspapers in Heaven. Thank You

Bessi Moore

October 3, 2005

It is with great sadness to hear of the passing of Paul. I had the pleasure of knowing him since 1947 during our "acting days" in the Roseville Playhouse. He was quite an actor with a personality plus. He will always be remembered.

Rest in peace,Paul.

Bessi (Dains) Moore

Patty & Bob Kennedy

September 30, 2005

We Shall Miss Paul alot, have for the last two years. We send you love Dixie and Family..I hope Paul is looking down and saying

Parade Time Again. We all miss him and feel the lost even tho we havn't seen him for a while. Bob & I shall always remember Paul in a very most special way. Much Love Patty & Bob Kennedy

Rick & Jacque Kennedy Send there love also.

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