Bernice Mary Mattice was born in Los Angeles, California on June 6, 1928. She died at home on September 17, 2022 after a short illness at 94 years of age. She met Kenny Mattice in 1949 and they married in March of 1950. They lived in Paramount, Norco, and then Wrightwood. She was a resident of Wrightwood since 1975 (still in the same house) with her husband Kenny who died in 1988. Together they owned Wrightwood Auto Supply, a NAPA owned store, which was on Cedar Street (the old laundromat) and later the business moved to Phelan. She also worked at Irene’s Sewing and Dry Cleaning in Phelan.
Bernice was a member of Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church (OLS) and a member of the OLS Woman’s Council. She loved her catholic faith, church and church family. She organized the first Friday vigils at OLS held every first Friday of the month for many years. She regularly went to the Chapel at the Veteran’s Hospital in Loma Linda for prayers and rosary every Sunday night.
She had three daughters Lynn, Gwyn and Karyn; 7 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren. She was the oldest of five siblings and outlived them all. She has several nephews and 2 nieces on the Sims (her maiden name) side of her family and one nephew, Steve Mattice, on her husband’s side of the family. Her family visited her regularly, as Bernice was lucky enough to still live at home (by herself) and have a part-time caregiver, Llasmin.
Bernice liked to knit, embroider, work puzzles, pray and do Sudoku puzzles … keeping her mind sharp as a tack! She was a terrific cook and in her later years made dozens of loaves of pumpkin bread for the church fundraiser and her community of friends (the recipe is available for anyone who wants it). In the later years, her daughters helped and made as many as 20 to 25 loaves in one day for the fundraiser. They still hope to carry on the tradition in the future.
She was fun loving, enjoyed parties, learning about new things, going out to eat and her bourbon (Jim Beam). She will be missed by her family, by the community of Wrightwood and by her church family at Our Lady of the Snows. The family wants to thank all her friends for such loving comments about her.
Funeral Mass will be held on November 14th at 11am at Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church in Wrightwood.
