Bernadene Catherine Adams, 88, of Ventura, California, passed away suddenly on June
14, 2025 in her home in Ventura. Bernadene was born in Chicago, IL to Peter and
Joanne (Holewinski) Roose on September 28, 1936. She attended Providence Catholic
High School and graduated in 1954. She worked as a seamstress, a school bus driver
and after earning a nursing degree in 1981, she worked as an RN at St. Joe Medical
Center for 20 years.
Bernadene is survived by her daughters Laura Walter of Ventura, CA, Patricia
Zimmerman (Gerald) of Warsaw, IN, Margaret Seligson (Daniel) of Palo Alto, CA,
Martha Walters of Santa Rosa, CA; sister, Carol Reid of Albany, OR; 8 grandchildren:
Tim, David, Brian, Trevor, Brooke, Rachel, Matthew and Anna; and 16 great
grandchildren. She is preceded in death by her two sons, Matthew and Peter, husband
Clifford Walters, husband Thomas Adams, and her parents.
Friends saw her as a lovely person with a gentle soul. A sweet, happy, and carefree
lady. We also knew her as a tiger when she wrote letters to congressmen to advocate
for the rights of the mentally disabled to receive an education. Getting trained as a bus
driver, she drove the special needs students to school so she could check on their well-
being.
Playing the piano was a lifelong passion. She won several performance awards as a
child. She played Chopin etudes for us as babes, until there were too many babes. She
accompanied both high school and church choirs. Church of the Foothills Choir was her
first time ever singing in a choir, where she enjoyed the people, even after she lost the
ability to read choir music.
Bernadene worked as a seamstress, making wedding gowns, and made all our clothes
growing up, on her classic 1950 Singer Sewing machine. Her quilts won awards in
Indiana. Recently, she worked on a quilt design with slanted and uneven lines, a perfect
reflection of her embracing this stage in life.
Raising her family, she canned our vegetables and fruit. We hand-pitted the cherries in
the living room late into the summer nights. While blanching the skins off the peaches,
we said we were hungry so she got 2 pieces of bread and slapped a half a peach
between them for an instant lunch. In her 80s, she still loved gardening. A little. Her job
was burying the compost. The woman could wield a shovel.
Recently, she had developed a crush on Tom Selleck. Who hasn’t? We gave her one of
our college dorm posters for her room, complete with an art installation style name
plate. She laughed a good long while at that.
Talking to her as her memory was fading, she reassured us that we could tell her
anything because she wouldn’t remember it anyway.
Today, she is surrounded by love and laughter. All in all, she enriched our lives. Her
daughters loved her and took care of her through the good, and tough times.
“Love, sooner or later, forces us out of time. It does not accept that limit. Of all that we
feel and do, all the virtues and all the sins, love alone crowds us at last over the edge of
the world. For love is always more than a little strange here…It is of eternity.”~Wendell
Berry
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to www.ojaimusicacademy.org,
which helps provide music lessons for children. The family extends their gratitude for
the outpouring of love and support from friends near and far.
Memorial services will be held in late August. Please check back here for an update.
Arrangements are under the direction of the BOYKO & REARDON TELEGRAPH ROAD MORTUARY & CREMATION, 15 Teloma Drive,
Ventura, CA.