Patterson Cemetery District, Stanislaus County, CA 

Submitted by Gale Stroud and Burta Herger 26 Aug 2007

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Bergez Jean 340629 p1
Crushed by Automobile; Fatal Smash Near Patterson Late Sunday Night; Jean Bergez. 58, laundry worker who had lived
in Newman for several years, met his death from an auto accident sometime late Sunday night or early Monday morning
on Sycamore avenue in Patterson Colony. Bergez remains were discovered by James Acquistipace about 8 a.m. pinned
beneath his overturned car opposite the Pearson place on South Sycamore in Patterson Colony.  According to Constable
C. W. Kirk, who was summoned to the scene, Bergez had been dead four to six hours.  He was last seen at the Felix
Signorotti ranch north of the Colony about 6 o'clock Sunday evening, and no trace of his movements following that was
established. Evidence left by his tracks showed that he had been driving in erratic fashion prior to the mishap, however,
according to the investigating officers.  The tracks showed he had been off the left hand side of the road for a long
distance and then the car suddenly skidded squarely across the highway and turned on its side, sliding about thirty feet
before it was halted. It is suggested by one observer who studied the tire marks that Bergez was probably driving at a
pretty fast clip and getting off the center of the road, into the loose gravelly shoulder, attempted to turn back at too sharp
an angle, the upset resulting.
Employed at Modesto; Bergez was a former Newman laundry worker, and bought a home there.  For the past year or two
he has worked in a Modesto laundry, traveling back and forth every day.  He leaves a wife and two young children.  An
unusual circumstance is that Mrs. Bergez, who like her husband is French, has learned scarcely a word of English, and
having no relatives nor countrymen here, it was very difficult to communicate with her. Funeral services were held at the
Newman Catholic Church Wednesday at 10, Father Mulvihill officiating.  Mrs. Bergez' mother came from Los Angles to
attend the services.