José G. Bernal

Jose Gregorio Bernal, our beloved Pop, 98, passed away at Kansas University Medical Center, surrounded by family on October 21, 2021. He was hospitalized beginning on September 28, 2021, but succumbed due to complications (not Covid-related.)

Pop was born in Blue Water, New Mexico. Before he settled in Kansas City, Missouri, he grew up in Chihuahua, Chihuahua Mexico and Los Angeles, California.

Pop worked in radio broadcasting during his years in Chihuahua. He was also a singer and musician, exceptionally talented with his guitar playing.

In August 1949 he married our Mama, Amparo Garcia. They were blessed with nine children, six boys and three girls.

Pop served in the United States Army, serving in the country of Korea during the Korean War. He worked at Armco Steel in Kansas City for 30 plus years. After retirement from Armco, he worked nearly twenty years as a marshal at Swope Memorial Golf Course. Pop truly enjoyed the game of golf. He was especially proud that he was able to attend and experience the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, Georgia, two different years.

We lost our Mom on September 22, 2013. Mom and Pop were married 64 years. Besides our beloved Mama, Pop was preceded in death by his parents, three brothers and a sister, his beloved sons Vicente and Michael, a daughter, Anna, and a grandson Nathaniel.

He leaves behind a sister, Bertha Caldera of Whittier, California; sons David (Stephenie), Joe Santos, John (Jana), Dionisio, Edward (Dana); daughters Isabel Bernal and Gloria Carter (Lindsey). Also left to remember him fondly are 20 grandchildren and 19 great grandchildren, as well as many other relatives in the Kansas City area and Mexico.

Pop loved all of his children and was always there when they needed him. They and all his grandchildren referred to him as “El Presidente” as a title of respect. Our lives won’t be the same without our patriarch. We miss him dearly! However, we know he is experiencing unexplainable joy being with our Mama, and others who have gone before him. He is now, too, in the arms of Jesus Christ and for that, we are joyful! We look forward to being united with Pop again one day, as believers in Christ.

EULOGY, to be read at José's Funeral Mass, November 1:

“Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14)

First I’d like to thank you all for coming to pay your respects to our father, José Gregorio Bernal. What can I say about our Pop……plenty, but I will do my best to keep this within 5 hours. :)

Our father was born in Bluewater, NM but grew up in Chihuahua Mexico, along with his parents and his 3 brothers and 2 sisters. His parents, Zenon and Jovita Bernal, were migrant workers and were working in New Mexico when Pop was born.

Pop has lots of stories to tell about his growing up. One story I slightly recall is one where one of Pancho Villas’ sons, and he had many, bailed him and a friend out of trouble in a bar way back when. They were going to be beat up by other young men when Villa and his friends intervened. Oh, as a side note, we met one of Pancho Villa’s last surviving wives, Maria Luz Corral de Villa, when we were young teens ourselves, in Chihuahua. Villa has his major headquarters there which was a 50 room mansion. It was a Pancho Villa museum in the 70s and she personally gave us a tour. She passed in 1981. Anyway….

As a young man, Pop loved music. He learned to play acoustic guitar as a teen and later joined a trio with two other musicians singing and playing Mexican love ballads. You’ve heard of Los Tres Aces or Trio Los Panchos maybe? Well, I don’t know what they called themselves but we have a photo of all three of the teens dressed up like mariachis. Looks like he was about 16? Later, Pop was also a DJ at a local Chihuahua radio station. It’s where he met our mother, Amparo. That in itself is another long story. But Pop was so enamored by her he ended up leaving Chihuahua in his early 20s and followed Mom back to Kansas City. I don’t know what kind of love bugs they have in Mexico but Pop was bitten pretty badly. They married on August 6th, 1949 and were blessed with 6 sons and 3 daughters.

As you can see, there is an American flag, Old Glory, draped over our father. Pop was an Army reservist back in WWII but before being called up, the war ended. But in 1950, Pop was drafted into the Korean War and spent a 1 year tour there. He was fighting in Korea when our oldest brother, David, was born. I personally spoke to Pop on occasion about some of his experiences there. He’d always say the worst weapon the North Koreans or Chinese hit them with was artillery. He thought he wouldn’t make it home at times. Pop was mostly deaf when he passed, mostly attributed to his time in Korea. He said his best tool was a shovel and he talked about how he would dig into frozen ground just deep enough to lie down and be as level with the ground as possible for when artillery hits, shrapnel spreads outward and everywhere. I’d like to read you an award notification to him and members of his 23rd Infantry Regiment.

“HQ 23rd Infantry, Special Order #34. 1. Under the provision of AR 600-70, the Combat Infantry Badge is awarded for officers and Enlisted Members of HQ Co 23d Inf Regt for satisfactory performance of duty in ground combat against the enemy effective 12 March 1951. Name: BERNAL, JOSÉ G.F. PFC. He was one of many given this award.

I surmise men on the front lines earned the opportunity to go to the rear for a break for Pop also served in the mess tent serving meals to officers and enlisted. I believe it was the Army Times that did a story of our father José when he was over there. Let me read it to you. It’s entitled “Drab Duty Brightened by Guitar Playing Kid.”

United Press: There’s always one guy in every outfit who makes life in general a little more pleasant, especially in Korea. PFC Joe (Pancho) Bernal, Kansas City, Mo., by way of Chihuahua, Mexico, is one of those guys. PANCHO is a staff mess attendant in HQ Company of the 23d Infantry Regiment. He is a tall, black haired, young man, with skin the rich color of coffee and cream and a smile full of flashing, white teeth. He serves chow to the staff officers with quiet courtesy. He also serves them a few minutes of peace and relaxation in the midst of war. When the food is on the table, Pancho comes up with guitar and begins to play and sing Mexican folk songs. The Chow Tent talk stops when Pancho sings in soft, liquid Spanish with a touch of homesickness in his voice. He is an artist, Pancho is, and when he sings his music commands attention. The dinner hour performance started several months ago after Pancho borrowed a battered old guitar from a French soldier and one of the officers heard him play. “The Frenchman took it back and I didn’t play awhile but a colonel went on R and R (rest and relaxation) to Tokyo for five days and when he came back he brought me this one, Pancho said. He smiled and sang a few bars from popular American songs. “But I don’t know the words,” he said. “So I always sing them in Spanish and make up words as I go along.” I guess it’s the wistful bit of homesickness that makes Pancho’s music so good. “Alla en el Rancho Grande, alla donde vivia!”

My father warmed the hearts of many of those serving in harm’s way. Wow, we are so proud of him. We thank God he came home safe.

You can take Pop out of Chihuahua, but you can’t take Chihuahua out of Pop. Pop made trips up to 2-3 times a year back to Chihuahua to visit his mom and siblings. His father Zenon, our grandfather, had passed when Pop was in his mid-twenties. We looked so forward to those trips as kids and are so very grateful we got to know our family back in Mexico. Now note here that it is a 1200 mile trip, one way, from Kansas City to Chihuahua Chihuahua. I don’t know how Pop had the stamina to drive all by himself, hauling all us kids in a station wagon, year in and year out. With every year’s trip, an extra Bernal was added. When Mom and Pop were all done having kids, get a visual of 9 kids from teens to tots stuffed in a station wagon with 2 adults and luggage stacked on top. Where did we all fit? Some in the back, some in the middle seats and two of us on the floorboard. If mom had a baby, she’d hold him or her in the front. Did I mention it was 1200 miles one way? Pop would need to rest of course and this was mostly at night. Pop would roll into a sleepy little town in NM, find a town park, and there we would sit for a few hours very late at night while he tried to sleep…..on top of the hood on a blanket or on a park bench. We kids would just go play on the swings and pretty much take over the park while he tried to rest. While on the road, people would drive by us and just shake their heads. Sometimes our feet were sticking out of the windows. Can I tell you quickly about one incident in the Summer time when we had stopped to eat somewhere. We boys got out our fireworks and shot some off. (Finish firecracker explosion story). As you can imagine, Pop was not happy. I remember 3 big cowboys leaning up against a truck with their arms folded just laughing. I can only imagine.

Once we got to the border, Pop had to work with the Mexican border patrol to get papers to enter. Pop would see the same guys almost every year and they remembered Pop. They’d look at all the kids stuffed in the wagon, shake their head and ask, “Don’t they have TV where you live?”

We loved Chihuahua. It was a quaint small Mexican city (approx. 200K) at that time and we stayed at my grandmother’s large house. We couldn’t wait to hook up with our relatives meeting us there from L.A., the Calderas. They were a family of 5. We were 11 and with my aunt, grandmother and brother Vicente, that’s 19 people. Where’d we sleep? Any space on the floor we could find, or couch, but we loved it! Oh yeah, did I mention only 1 bathroom? Oh the beautiful memories we had over the years of returning to my dad’s home town with our family in Mexico. He gave us those memories. He took care of us always. The trip home was sad and long, but we looked forward to next time. As for Pop, even up to this year, he told us he wanted to go back to Chihuahua one last time.

Pop worked for Armco Steel for 30 years, working different shifts. When he retired, he worked as a golf marshal at one of the courses in Swope Park for 20 years or so. He was so loved by many who played there. When he retired from that job, he was truly missed. Where’s José, is what they would say. That’s the kind of guy Pop was. People loved him.

We didn’t have everything we wanted as kids, but he provided everything we needed. Mom was a saint. While Pop slept downstairs, she was charged with keeping us 9 kids quiet. That didn’t work out too well. Pop came up many times and applied the discipline the Bible talks about. Proverbs 13:24 says, “He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly.” Pop loved us alot. As a kid, I remember I did something wrong and I knew what was coming. He told me, “Son, this is going to hurt me more than you.” I never understood that because it was me who was screaming, not him.

Our father is one strong hombre for sure. These past few decades he survived many incidents that could have killed him. On Sept 8, 2001, he suffered a brain aneurism and miraculously recovered. Even the responding EMS people were shocked to see him recover. They see this all the time and most do not survive. Some years later he was diagnosed with kidney cancer. We weren’t sure he would make it. One cancerous kidney was removed, and he lived with one kidney these last several years. A few years ago, he had a UTI infection that progressed into sepsis. Again, at his age, we didn’t know if he’d pull through. But he did! Then he was diagnosed with bladder cancer, but it was not progressive. This last time, gall bladder and a bleeding stomach ulcer was just too much for him to fight anymore. He was tired.

We siblings are so blessed to have had Pop this long. Yes, it’s tough to let him go, but God definitely blessed us. We are thankful Lord and we glorify your name today and every day! Thank you for allowing Pop to stay with us this long!!!

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

In closing, thank you all for coming. I’d like to close with a bible verse from Revelation 21:1-27: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true,”…

God bless you!