Audrey Felice Martinson

Audrey Felice Martinson, age 95, of Dublin, California passed away on February 20, 2024. Much of Audrey's invincible, vivacious, funny, feisty and adventuresome nature can be traced back to her family roots. Audrey’s mother’s side of the family, the O’Briens arrived in San Fransisco in 1852, first owning a fish market. Later her namesake grandmother owned and operated a large clothes cleaners at 715 Broadway - quite a feat for a woman of the 1880s.

Audrey was born on January 16, 1929 in San Francisco’s Mission District. Audrey’s parents, Charles Jensen and Jeanette (nee) O’Brien, also had an older daughter, Shirley. Audrey had vivid memories of her father taking her and Shirley to San Francisco Seals games, “mostly to eat hot dogs.” Her father, a bar tender, would also take Audrey slowly down mission street as he stopped to visit seemingly everyone at every place. With his gregarious nature, locales fondly called Charles the “Mayor of Mission.” The bars gave Audrey their used bottle caps since movie houses had prize contests for kids who gathered the most bottle caps. Audrey always won, including winning a bicycle that she let her parents sell - money always being short during the depression. Besides, Audrey had her roller skates. She skated all the time, flying down the Dolores hill and grabbing the corner of a church at 19th to stop her from “ending up in the bay.” Audrey also spent her free time at Mission “Nickels” Park, where she saw Olympian Ann Curtis practice swimming, and shagged baseballs for future MLB players Charlie Silvera and Jackie Jensen.

In 1947, Audrey married Bert Moorehouse, who later worked for the San Bruno police force. Both admitted they married mostly to get out of their parents houses, but they grew to deeply love each other. The couple had three children, Mark, Scott, and Laura. Not having enough money to buy a house, the couple would buy vacant lots in San Bruno and build their homes virtually all by themselves. They would sometimes fall asleep on plywood, hammer in hand, after exhausting days of building. As their family grew, they built a total of three houses by themselves.

Tragically, Bert died at the young age of 37, leaving Audrey to raise three kids as a single mother. Audrey worked tirelessly as a waitress, with her day’s tip money determining the family’s dinner menu. In 1976, Audrey married BofA banking executive, Guido Bartolo. Guido owned a trailer at Lake Berryessa and the family spent countless fun filled weekends at the lake. Along with Guido’s son Denny, Audrey’s children grew up at the lake and some met their spouses there. After Guido’s passing in 1994, Audrey met and married Brian Martinson, a Justice Department CPA. By then, Audrey had 11 grandchildren and Audrey filled her time with visits to them, and then started right over planning her next visit. Audrey and Brian loved to travel, eventually visiting all 50 states. Audrey insisted on going to the last “fly over” states of Oklahoma to the Dakotas - a trip that turned out to be one of their most fun adventures.

Reaching her 90’s, Audrey got to experience a whole new generation of seeing her 13 great grandchildren. Audrey again lived for her family visits and parties. Up for anything from doing a beer keg stand, to break dancing, to building sofa forts, Audrey loved creating new fun memories with her kids. But not only visiting, Audrey was always there whenever and however her family needed help - always. Audrey constantly gave her large family presents that would keep them all warm: coats, scarves, gloves, slippers, sweaters, boots… But her most precious gift she gave her family was blanketing them with her unique love that was Audrey.