Dorothy Antonia Bertotti
Dorothy A. (Grandma Dot) Vacha Bertotti was born in Danvers, Montana on December 1,1917, to her parents Frank John Vacha and Bertha (Nanny) Sybella Mueller Vacha. She grew up in West Oakland California, moving briefly with her family to Idaho at age 12 – and back to Oakland soon after. She graduated from McClymonds High School in Oakland where she met her husband, Joseph Andrew (Grandpa Joe) Bertotti (1914-1992). They settled in Berkeley, California where they had two sonsEdward Joseph and James Andrew Bertotti. Later the family moved to Albany California where both her sons attended and graduated from Albany High School.
Grandma Dot was a homemaker most of her adult life, raising her sons and supporting them and her husband, Joe. Edward married Sharon James in 1959 and settled in Susanville, California in 1966. They raised three sons – Joseph James (Teri Hagata), Michael Edward (Angel Larson) and John Damian (Deborah Carlson) as well as a daughter Andrea Marie (Patrick Metoyer). Those four grandchildren gave Grandma Dot thirteen great-grandchildren: Michael, Joseph (Andrew), Daniel, Lauren (Luke Bueche), Jonathon, Rachel, Jared, Stephen, Therese, John Paul and Joseph Bertotti; and Frances and Sophia Bertotti Metoyer.
Her son James married Linda Hemenway in 1968 and settled in Whittier California. They presented Grandma Dot and Grandpa Joe with a son Brian Allen (Jill Cieslak) and a daughter Jennifer Ann (Brian Bergeron). Their contribution to “Grandma Dot’s Sweethearts” include Taylor Conner, Samantha and Rylee Bertotti and Kennedy and Charlotte Bergeron.
After raising her children, Dorothy worked as a retail clerk at Capwell’s Department store in EI Cerrito, California, about a fifteen minute walk from her home in Albany. She walked everywhere – she never had a driver’s license. She worked in the boys department which was very convenient as she had four grandsons. She and her husband Joe spent most of their vacations visiting their children and grandchildren in either Lassen or Los Angeles County.
Dorothy was preceded in death by Joseph, her beloved husband of 58 years and her parents. She was also the last surviving member of her family which included a brother Edward J. Vacha (Marin County, California) and sisters Lucy K. Biasotti (Marin County), Isabelle M. Ghiglione (Alameda, California), Monica M. Smearden, (Richmond, California) and Rita Snell.
Dorothy moved to Susanville, California in 1998 at age 81. She immediately joined the local bowling league (she sometimes scored 200) and organizations affiliated with the Sacred Heart Catholic Church. For the following ten years she was seen walking all around Susanville from her home on Fairfield Avenue . Mostly to the Lassen High School gym, Memorial Ball Park, Riverside Park or the Little League fields where many of her great-grandchildren competed in countless athletic contests. Over those ten years there was one constant – Grandma Dot was there. She loved her family and they will miss her very much.
Dorothy Antonia Vacha Bertotti passed away peacefully in Susanville, California on December 24, 2013, at the age of 96. There will be a Funeral Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church on North Union Street in Susanville, California on Tuesday January 7,2014, at 2:00. She will be interred beside her husband and parents at St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery in San Pablo, California, in February 2014.
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