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Carmen Bozzone Michels

Carmen Bozzone Michels

  Carmen passed away in the early morning on Nov. 2, 2012, from a short battle with lung cancer. She was 69.

  Carmen Anita Bozzone was born in Baltimore, Md., on Aug. 5, 1943, to Raulo and Maria Bozzone. She moved to Sonoma at the age of 5 with her parents. Growing up, she was a tomboy at heart and enjoyed playing with her cousins in the pear orchards that her uncle owned. Carmen attended Huichica Elementary School – a one room school in Vineburg until she graduated from eighth-grade. While there, she was very active in organizing the art and dance classes. Carmen graduated from Sonoma Valley High in 1961.

  Carmen started her working career in the flag factory in Sonoma until she switched into the wine industry, becoming California’s first female wine server at Buena Vista tasting room in the late ’60s. In 1978, she started working at Sonoma Developmental Center as a food service tech until she retired 20 years later. She was proud to use her artistic talents to develop a colored coded diet system for the food service department.

  Carmen enjoyed dancing and gardening, but was known best for her beautiful handwriting, award-winning poetry and artistry in her pencil and chalk drawings. Carmen was an animal lover and had taken in many stray cats; her motto was “Cats are like potato chips, you just can’t have one.”

  She was a loving mother to her daughter, Carla Massa Piver; a very proud grandmother to Morgan and Layton Piver. She also cared for her stepchildren, Rick and Robert Michels and she had a loving relationship with Shannon and Shawn Graham. She was also survived by her sister, Delores Bishop; nieces, Martha, Karen and Laurie; and nephew, Robin; and numerous great- and great-great nieces and nephews. She was the former wife of Gary Massa and the late John Michels. She was preceded in death by the love of her life, Doug Graham.

  Friends and family are invited to attend a memorial service at Duggan’s Mission Chapel, on Thursday Nov. 8, 2012, at 1 p.m. Private inurnment in the family plot at Mountain Cemetery, Sonoma.

Duggan’s Mission Chapel
525 W. Napa St.,
Sonoma, CA 95476
duggansmissionchapel.com