Christine Smith Bertsch - age: 88
(December 17, 1921 to November 10, 2010
)
Resident of
Redwood City, California
Obituary:
Christine P. Smith Bertsch
Christine Smith Bertsch died of natural causes on November 10th in the company of her loving son Christian at Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City. Daughter of Mildred Merle Hansen of Covelo and Porter Lincoln Smith of Ukiah, she was born in Ukiah on December 17th, 1921, where she lived with her Aunt Genevieve and Uncle Bunt Cox before attending the San Francisco Art Institute as a young student. Christine left the mainland for the glamour of Hawaii, where she met and married Edward Sierens. As a Navy wife, Christine was a survivor of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. She was an active supporter of the armed forces, working in an airline factory and enjoying a brief stint as a pin-up girl on a B-52 bomber. Christine divorced Eddie Sierens and married Harold Bertsch, after which she left Ukiah to live in San Francisco.
She will be missed by her loving sons David Sierens of Seattle and Christian Bertsch of San Francisco. Christine was preceded in death by her daughter Suzanne Elizabeth Sierens, her son Peter Christian Sierens, and her husbands Edward Sierens and Harold Bertsch. She will be missed by her nieces and nephew, especially Onna Raleigh and her four children. She was particularly fond of her niece Sharon Smith, daughter of her brother Porter Lincoln Smith of Pleasant Hill. Her brother James Hansen Smith and his wife Marilyn and their family have provided their kind support to her during her life.
Christine was a consummate artist in life, a fine pianist, and an accomplished painter who worked in all mediums, including mosaics. Her friend Katherine White was both a muse and mentor, the two of them having created techniques in charcoal and other unusual materials to create original works of art, one of which was exhibited in Golden Gate Park. Most of Christines work was oil on canvas, but some of her creations found themselves on ordinary objects, like driftwood.
A funeral service will take place at 1:00 PM on Monday, November 29th at Eversole Mortuary, 141 Low Gap Road, Ukiah, CA 95482. Visitations are welcome in the morning. The ceremony will be officiated by Reverend Sherry Budke of the First Presbyterian Church. Following the funeral, Christine will be laid to rest at the Russian River Cemetery, beside her loving Son Peter and with her Daughter Suzanne.