Lois “Chris” Hartman was born in Long Beach, California on April 29, 1924. Chris was the eighth of nine children born to Ernst and Flora Christopher. In 1929 Chris’ father traded the large home he built for the family in Long Beach for a small home and property in Arcadia, California to better position the family to survive the economic uncertainty and hardship of the depression years. Chris attended schools in the Monrovia, Arcadia and Duarte (MAD) school district. Through the years Chris stayed connected with her MAD girl friends hosting an annual lunch until the late 2000’s. After graduating from high school in 1942 Chris worked in the Pasadena Unified School District Headquarters in the Data Processing department.
In January 1946 Chris attended a MAD high school basketball game with girl friends and afterwards stopped by a local coffee shop for a snack. Her future husband Bud walked in with a friend who knew one of Chris’ girl friends and both joined Chris’ table. Bud had just returned from Europe a few weeks before where he served three years in the Army in World War II. Bud had also gained early acceptance into the USC School of Engineering. Bud asked for Chris’ phone number and was surprised a few weeks later when Chris answered the phone as he expected it to be a fake phone number.
Chris and Bud started dating and were married on March 28, 1947 during Easter vacation, honeymooning in San Clemente. An avid USC football fan Chris insisted on going to the USC vs UCLA game on November 20, 1948 despite being close to the due date of their first child. USC won the game and thankfully Chuck waited until Monday to be born. Bud and Chris had season tickets to USC football games for 50 years. After Bud retired in 1988, they had fun traveling with other USC alumnae to many away games including several to Notre Dame, in South Bend, Indiana.
Chris’ daughter Sandy was born in February 1950. The family lived in the small guest house built by Bud with guidance from Chris’ father who was a skilled carpenter. Soon after Sandy was born the family moved from Sierra Madre to Burbank where Bud was working in Lockheed’s R&D “skunkworks”, his first job after graduating from USC. In 1953 Bud was offered a job at Schultz Tool in San Gabriel which enabled the family to move back to Sierra Madre in time for Chuck to start kindergarten. Chris became a volunteer in the new Sierra Madre Community Nursery School where Sandy was a student.
Bud and Chris joined the 4 Cylinder Club and enjoyed competing in sports car rallies with Chris as the driver and Bud the navigator. In 1960 Chris was co-leader of Sandy’s Girl Scouts Brownie troop. The family also enjoyed a 3 week vacation in Hawaii that year, exploring the islands of Oahu, Hawaii and Kauai.
After Schultz Tool was bought in 1971 by Parker Hannifin, Bud and Chris moved from Sierra Madre to Irvine. Renewing Bud’s childhood love for sailing Bud and Chris joined the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club in 1972. Chris published the club’s roster for four years and was historian for five years while Bud was elected to the board of directors in 1975 and Commodore in 1980. Chris and Bud enjoyed many wonderful sailing and boating vacations and cruises with BCYC friends. They cruised through the Panama Canal and charted boats to sail the Caribbean Islands several times. They also charted boats to sail around the San Juan Islands and enjoyed two weeks of motor sailing from Ketchikan Alaska to Victoria BC. Cruising the Rhine River with Trojan Travelers and a trip to New Zealand and Australia were also special. They also enjoyed attending many jazz festivals in California with good friends.
Chris and Bud were also active at Mariner’s Church in Newport Beach enjoying Bible study classes, vacations, local day trips and many social events with the senior group, the Fellowshippers.
In 1992 Chuck and daughter-in-law Carol were married in Carmel, California. Granddaughter Melissa was born in February 1996 and grandson Brian in June 1998. The family celebrated Bud and Chris’ 50th wedding anniversary on Maui in 1997. Bud and Chris drove to San Jose four times a year for Melissa and Brian’s birthdays, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Bud and Chris also kept in touch with Hartman and Christopher relatives including birthday parties at the Beebe’s (brother John’s great grandchildren, niece Diane) and the Fisch’s (brother Bob’s grandchildren, niece Judy) and on one vacation visited the Ford family (Dorothy’s great grandchildren, niece Beverly) in North Dakota.
After Bud passed away in November 2014, Chris moved to San Jose with Chuck and Sandy and in January moved into a private room in an assisted living facility three miles from both Chuck and Sandy’s homes. Chuck stopped by every afternoon before dinner while Sandy stopped by every evening and played word search and solitaire games with Chris until bedtime. In addition to celebrating Mother’s Day, holidays and birthdays with family, Chris enjoyed attending theatrical productions grandchildren Melissa and Brian were part of the production crew.
Until late October 2016 Chris’ health remained stable, requiring a moderate level of assistance from the care staff at her facility. Chris then started to eat less and less and due to her weakened state, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving was moved to the Memory Care wing of her facility. Still eating very little Chris started to sleep most of the time and late afternoon Sunday December 4th passed away in San Jose, California.
Looking through the abundance of family photos to create a memorial collage it was clear Chris was “the photographer” capturing life events through her eyes but often omitting herself from the record. Chris is now reunited with her special “Buddy”, her partner for 68 years. Together they created and enjoyed a life full of love, fun, travel, friendships, community and family.
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