Arthur Paul Bertrand

A funeral Mass for Arthur Paul Bertrand, 81, of Bourbonnais, will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Thursday at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, Kankakee. Burial will be in Mount Calvary Cemetery, Kankakee. There will be no visitation. Mr. Bertrand passed away Monday (June 23, 2014) at Presence Our Lady of Victory in Bourbonnais. Clancy-Gernon Funeral Home, Bourbonnais, is in charge of arrangements. He was born July 3, 1932, in Kankakee, the son of Hector A. and Rose E. Blessing Bertrand. He went to St. Joseph Boys School in Kankakee. He left Kankakee in 1960 and lived in San Diego, Calif. for 36 years. He returned to Kankakee in 1996 and lived in Aroma Park, and currently in Bourbonnais. He had published: The Bertrand Family History, 51 volumes; The Merillat Family History, nine volumes; The Girard Family History, 15 volumes; The Ball Family History, nine volumes; The Scarberry Family History, four volumes; The Blessing Family History, five volumes; and The Perreault Family Line. (All these books are at the Kankakee Valley Genealogical Society, Kankakee Public Library). His great-grandparents, Leon and Marie-Aglae (Perreault) Bertrand, and their six children came from Saint-Jacques de Montcalm, Canada in 1852. Leon and family were the second settlers in Pilot Township, Kankakee County, in 1852, and 11 more children were born. Today there is still land he purchased in the Bertrand Family. His grandparents, Leon-Napoleon and Mary Ellen (Merillat) Bertrand had 14 children, lived at 304 North 7th Avenue (changed to 100 now 210 (White City). This house was one of the houses that Powell & Snow moved here (1900) from Coal City (coal miner homes) and restored and moved to lots on 7th Avenue and Bridge street. The houses were all painted white, so the area became known as White City. He was preceded in death by his mother, Rose Ellen Blessing Bertrand Gusak (died in 1978, San Diego, Calif.); father, Hector Abel Bertrand (died in 1939, Kankakee); stepfather, Joseph Adam Gusak (died in 1982, San Diego); and brother, Robert Hector Bertrand (died in 1969 in explosion at R.R. Donnelleys, Chicago). Surviving are two nieces and nephews, Terri Rose (Bertrand) and Richard Y. Fong, of Florida, and Sherie Lee (Bertrand) and Wolf Haunzwickl, of Germany; three great-nieces, Carrie Lynn Fong, Lori Ann (Fong) Folden, and Tabitha Bruinsma, of Florida; two great-great-nieces, Ashlyn Fong and Abby Folden; great-great-nephew, Shane Folden, of Florida; many cousins; his daughter, Sharon Hanson and her husband, Jerry, of Aroma Park; and special friend, Semyon Hall, of Arizona.

Arthur Paul Bertrand

July 3, 1932 - June 23, 2014