Viveds to reign over Old Timers Day
Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune
Pat and Joe Vived will preside over festivities during the annual Old Timers Day Parade.
When the Madera County Historical Society commemorates the founding of Madera at the annual Old Timers Day celebration, Pat and Joe Vived will reign as Queen and King.
Joe was born to Teresa (Bomprezzi) and Angel Vived in Madera at the Dearborn Hospital in 1941. His parents farmed a piece of property on Road 23 that they still own today. They grow 54 acres of almonds and 9.6 acres of Merlot grapes. Coming from a farming family, they raised cotton and cattle and his father and grandfather operated a dairy in the 1920s.
Joe’s father had a heart attack in about 1970 and that was when Joe rejoined the family farming operation, he said. They grew grapes before turning most of their holdings into almonds.
Like his mother before him, Joe attended Howard School for first through the eighth grade and ninth through twelfth grade at Madera Union High School, class of 1959. Following high school Joe attended Fresno State College as it was called then.
Joe met Pat, the daughter of Thomas James and Margaret (Jasper) Dunn, when they were in college. She was born in Fresno at the Burnett Sanitarium where Fresno Community Hospital is today.
Her father was in the Navy when she was born. After the service, Thomas worked as a civil engineer for what is now Cal Trans. She graduated from Clayton Valley High School in Concord and attended Fresno State to be a teacher.
Joe and Pat were both visiting a mutual friend, Denise Sagouspe Dagget, who was recovering from an appendectomy.
On their first date, the couple went to Bakersfield to a Madera High School football game and Joe drove the rooter-bus.
“My college roommate told me she wouldn’t ride a high school bus to Bakersfield for anyone,” said Pat.
When Madera had only one high school Friday nights in the fall were dedicated to high school football.
Madera’s entertainment was limited so Memorial Stadium was packed when the Coyotes played a home game.
Joe said he took some ribbing too.
“Hey, I was making money and I had a date with a pretty girl,” he said. “Life was good.”
As a teacher, Joe and his colleagues had to work Friday nights at the football games, but the wives and the kids all attended the games to support the Coyotes, said Pat.
After college, Joe returned to Madera and went to work for the school district. Following college Pat got a job teaching elementary school.
They both always knew they wanted to be teachers.
“I have wonderful memories of teachers, mentors who made a positive impact on my life,” he said. “Bob Warner was my coach and then he was my principle.”
Joe credits Perry Harper, Jerry Johnson, Jim Harper, Tom Clark, Barry Crow and Gordon Fake as advisers to emulate, he said.
Pat taught sixth grade at Sierra Vista. She also taught English in adult education, organized by then Superintendent Con Winder. Teaching adults was a dream job, said Pat because the students really wanted to learn. She also taught in an independent study program.
Taking some time off to raise their four children, Pat spent 21 years teaching for MUSD. Joe worked for the school district for 37 years, ending his career as an administer.
She said her education mentors were Phil Pendly, Betty Scalise, Jim Harper and Ron Manfredo. They have four children all college graduates.
Their eldest son is Scott and he and his wife Paula have three children, Jessica, Nathan and Ryan. Daughter Wendy Vived is single with no children. Daughter Lori and husband Lee King have son Nick and identical twin daughters, Claire and Hannah. Craig and his wife Jill have two children Harper and Rhett.
