Dec 14, 1937 – Jun 15, 2017
With heavy hearts, we announce the passing of Pat Burgess, at age 79, from unexpected complications related to the flu. Born in Phoenix, AZ, Pat lived her adulthood in Costa Mesa and Orange, California. She married Leonard (Bus) Stiles and had her 3 children, David, Jean & Linda. From there, Pat moved to Bellingham, WA where she worked as a Realtor/ Broker. She met her husband Hank Rousseau in Bellingham and they moved to Kona, Hawaii, with his 2 sons Rick and Wesley Rousseau. In Hawaii, Pat continued working in real estate and caring for her now blended family of 5 children. She met and married her future husband Clyde Burgess in Kona, where he was working as a contractor and home builder. Clyde and Pat then had a business idea and moved to Vernon, British Columbia where they started Valley Fibrebath and BigFoot Industries, which manufactured fiberglass bathtubs and the Boler-like BigFoot trailers that you may have seen in campgrounds around North America. Her son David, an artist with Disney, Dreamworks and now the Lego Movies designed the BigFoot logo that you see on those trailers, when he was a teenager. Patty also started a store in Vernon, called Carousel Consignments which still exists on 30th Avenue. It continues to receive great reviews and we are very proud of Pat for that. She retired in Sonoita AZ, with Clyde and 3 Peruvian Pacer horses that she loved. A farm injury to Clyde took him off the farm and back to Campbell River, B.C., in about 1992. At that time, Pat moved to Green Valley, where she bought a Condo and golfed-golfed-golfed. When she moved to Sierra Vista, she moved her Father, Edward Buchman, of Long Beach, CA into her condo, where eventually he passed away, following his wife and Pat’s mother, Irma Mae (Brown) Buchman. In regards to golf, rumor has it that she still has a plaque posted that holds her record for the best ladies golf round ever shot at Spallumcheen Golf Course, in Vernon, B.C. Eventually, she settled finally to the place she loved so much, with her dogs Wookey, Bebe & Casey at WinterHaven in Sierra Vista. There she was active with ladies golf and bridge and a few other alternative hobbies, like running Mufon at the Public Library. The neighbors there in WinterHaven are beautiful people and everyone stopped by and sent muffins and condolences. Funny that the theme was: she would just up and throw in her bridge hand at 3:45 P.M. saying that Wookey had to be fed at 4:00. (We discovered Wookey would also eat if you fed him at 5 or 6 as well…). She loved those dogs, and we are so thankful that a wonderful man in WinterHaven (Jerry Regan) has happily adopted them as his family. She is pre-deceased by her husband Clyde Earl Burgess (2010) and her grandson Adam William Pearse/Hood (2008) She is survived by her son David (Stiles) Burgess & daughters Jean (Hood/ Pearse/Stiles) Vermilyea and Linda (Stiles/Jaeger) Ainsworth and grandchildren Jason (Pearse) Hood and Brandon (Hood) Pearse, Simon Jaeger, and Macy and Graham Burgess. She also has a new great-granddaughter Ivy Linda Jaeger, whom she never had the chance to meet. She is pre-deceased by her brother, Fred Buchman and survived by her brother Larry Buchman of Long Beach and her sister Carolyn (Buchman) Hardage of Tucson, AZ. In closing, our Mom Pat was imaginative, innovative, energetic and interesting. She was well loved and will be so incredibly missed.