Carmen Bass

On Sunday, June 27, 2021 Carmen Bass, loving mother, grandmother, great  grandmother, great-great grandmother, sister, auntie and friend passed away peacefully at age 83 from a long battle with cancer. She was home, surrounded with love by her family.

Carmen was born on April 21,1938 to Esteban and Teodora in Wai'anae, Hawaii. She was one of nine children. She loved to sing and even performed on a program called Filipino Fiesta on radio station KAIM as a young girl. One of her earliest jobs was working in the pineapple field as a picker ~ Fun fact: She did not like pineapples!

In 1956 she was married to her first husband, they lived in Kentucky where he was stationed. Soon after they had their first son, Gordon in 1957 and Gabriel in 1958 and a dauhgter Gloria in 1960 (who passed away shortly after birth). Years later she was divorced, moved back home to Hawaii to live with family and eventually relocated to California.

In 1964 she met Eric Bass, after a couple years together they started their own family. They had two daughters, Carmela born in 1966 and Leanne in 1968. They married in 1971 and raised their family of four while living in Elysian Valley, then Atwater Village and finally Burbank in 1979 where she continued to live. 

Carmen worked for Lawry's Food for 20+ years as a packer/assembly line worker. Lipton Food bought the company and eventually the plant relocated to another state and she was forced to take early retirement from the company.  Soon after, she joined the family business, C&L Supply. She was always a hard worker who was exceptionally strong, she easily handled the shipping duties despite the weight of some of the shipments. It was no surprise she befriended most UPS, FedEx or delivery person..rather than rushing thru their deliveries they would end up chatting with her and she would always listen and before they left she would offer them a drink or snack and a hug. 

Carmen was a loving and supportive wife. Erics hobbies included flying and riding motorcycles - she was his co-pilot in the air, on the ground and in life. In 2006, her husband of 35 years passed away at age 59 from his battle with cancer. The years following she continued to work to keep herself busy but eventually retired to enjoy and slow down after years of working and taking care of her family.

Carmen danced hula with the Hula Halau O Kamuela II, enjoyed bowling on a league called the Misfits and occasionally took exercise classes with her girlfiends through the City of Burbank. She expressed grabbing food after the class as being more fun then the class sometimes...waffles w/strawberries at Tally Rand was a fave.

Around 2013 she reconnected with an old friend, Jim Fox. The friendship blossomed and soon they were a couple. While enjoying retirement together they liked to travel, going on road trips, visiting her family in Hawaii and a couple cruises to Alaska. Dividing the time between their homes in California and Colorado they loved to entertain family & friends often playing music, singing & dancing. 

Carmen was a fun loving woman who touched everyone she met.  She was intuitive, a healer and had the biggest HEART and was ALWAYS ready to give you a hug. She brought Sunshine and Happiness whenever she entered a room and had a contagious laugh that brought Joy to anyone that was fortunate to hear it. Her laugh will forever be remembered and will continue to bring joy and a smile to all of our hearts. She will be missed but will continue to live on, in all she touched.

Carmen is survived by (4) Children (12) Grand Children (21) Great Grand Children & (4) Great Great Grand Children and (1) Brother and countless nieces and nephews.

We will be having A Celebration of Life service on July 20, 2021. See event details above for more info. Also, we will have a live stream of the service on YouTube and Vimeo.