Goss Family History, Part III
(Jess Norman Goss Children)
Charles Donald Goss (1916-1955)
161. Charles “Charlie”/“Don” Donald Goss was born on , in Jamestown, Tuolumne County, California. He appears to have been named for his uncle Charles A. Goss. Don married Jeanne L. Hewitt, a native of North Dakota, by 1946 and fathered three daughters:
| Name | Birth | Death | Age | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1611. | Margaret Goss | -- | -- | -- |
| 1612. | Marilee Goss | -- | -- | -- |
| 1613. | Andrea Goss | -- | -- | -- |
Don graduated from Sonora Union High School in 1934, and by 1940 had completed a year of college and was working as a salesman for a wholesale woolen distributor.[Cen 1940]
Don later enlisted with the U.S. Navy Reserve and served as Boatswain's Mate Second Class (BM2) during World War II.
After the war, Don served as a lineman with Bell Telephone in San Francisco, where his daughters were born. In 1950, the Goss family lived in the upper unit at 530 Hugo Street in San Francisco.[Cen 1950]
Don later moved to Madera, Madera County, and joined the highway patrol in . Upon becoming a patrolman, Don decided to switch to going by his first name, Charles, and became known among the patrolman as “Charlie.”
Don and Jeanne are recalled to have been a pleasure to watch on the dance floor. Both were quite musical and passed that talent to their daughters.
On a foggy morning after Thanksgiving Day, , Charlie responded to an auto accident near Red Top on Highway 152, west of Chowchilla. Four men, Alfred D. Reid, 37, Tony Fiorentino, 18, Tony Mastro, 18, and John Ambry, 18, all from Fresno, had been heading west to Los Banos to hunt pheasants when they were involved in an accident. Charlie picked them up and was taking them back east toward Chowchilla for medical treatment when, as they crossed the fog-shrouded, two-lane Ash Slough Bridge on Highway 152, an oncoming car driven by Ernest Welch attempted to pass a truck only to collide head-on into Charlie's patrol car. Charlie was killed instantly and passengers Fiorentino and Reid were critically injured.
Charles Donald Goss was interred three days later, November 28, at the Arbor Vitae Cemetery in Madera. He was only 39 years old.[Grave]
Jeanne went on to remarry to Kenneth W. Ford, a widower, in Monterey County on . Ken died on , in Madera, at the age of 83 years. He was buried with his first wife Helen at Arbor Vitae Cemetery.[Grave]
Jeanne L. (Hewitt Goss) Ford died on , while living in Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo County, California. She was 91 years old. Jeanne's ashes were laid with Charlie's in Arbor Vitae Cemetery two months later on October 20.
Sixty-seven years after Charles's tragic death, the Madera California Highway Patrol dedicated the 5-mile stretch of Highway 152, from Road 5 to Road 10, to his memory on . Charles's three daughters and their families attended the dedication, along with two survivors of the deadly crash, Tony Mastro and Tony Fiorentino.
Gertrude Phyllis (Goss) Bigelow (1921-2011)
162. Gertrude Phyllis Goss was born on , in Tuolumne County, California. She married Roy Edwin Bigelow, a native of Berkeley, Alameda County, California, on . They had two children:
| Name | Birth | Death | Age | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1621. | Deborah Bigelow | -- | -- | -- |
| 1622. | Joshua Bigelow | -- | -- | -- |
Gertrude and Roy were married on , in Flagstaff, Coconino County, Arizona, by Superior Court Judge Hugh L. Russell. Gertrude was 27 years old and Roy was 46, however, he was recorded as 38 years old on their marriage license and certificate. Witnesses to their marriage were Margery McNary and Beatrice Prochnow. Both Gertrude and Roy were living in Los Angeles at the time.[Mar 1948]
After their marriage, they moved back to Gertrudes hometown of Jamestown and lived in the “3rd house on Main Street.” Roy worked as a general contractor in the building trade .[Cen 1950]
The Bigelows moved north to Chico, Butte County, by 1969 and lived at 326 West 1st Avenue by 1970.[News 1970]
Roy Edwin Bigelow died on , in Alameda County, California, at the age of 95 years. He was buried at Saint James Catholic Cemetery in Jamestown.[Grave]
Gertude Phyllis (Goss) Bigelow died 13 years later on , at the age of 90 years. She was also buried at Saint James Catholic Cemetery in Jamestown.[Grave]