Herbert Evers 88, Orange

Herbert J. “Buzz” Evers loved to laugh. Grandpa Buzz, as he was known to his many grandchildren, had a life filled with funny stories to tell.

Before he died Aug. 17 in San Juan Capistrano of COVID- 19 at age 88, eight of his nine children got a chance to reminisce during a final video call as Evers’ caregiver held up a tablet for the entire 45- minute conversation.

“He opened his eyes at one point, lifted up his arm and scratched his head,” son Paul said.

Born Dec. 21, 1931, in San Diego, Herbert grew up in Oceanside before moving to Orange with his first wife, Roberta. They were high school sweethearts. He served in the Air Force from 1951 to ’ 58, then started a catering business, Buzz’s Catering.

Soon he was feeding workers for a giant new project known as Disneyland going up in Orange County. There’s an old family film of Walt Disney showing around Evers’ oldest child, Blaise, as the buildings went up.

In the 1960s, he also became friends with some of the baseball players of the new professional team in town, the Angels.

Evers would go on to operate an auto upholstery business and dabble in real estate.

He loved music and loved to dance and just be goofy, his family said. He once participated in a lip- sync contest with two of his sons, dressing up as Fidel Castro. He also carried around an old film roll canister filled with wax so he could put it on the f loor to guarantee he would always have the smoothest moves when he danced.

Married three times, Evers is survived by daughters Mary Rowe, Kathryn Van Loon and Margaret Cruikshank; sons Blaise, Michael, Terry, Sean and Paul; 30 grandchildren; 37 great- grandchildren; and four great- great- grandchildren