Obituaries - Oct. 28, 1999

* John E. Bergener; Bankruptcy Judge

John E. Bergener, 88, former federal bankruptcy judge for the Central District of California headquartered in Los Angeles. Bergener was appointed to the Bankruptcy Court on Aug. 16, 1955, and served until his retirement Nov. 30, 1983. He earned his law degree in 1936 after studies at the Chicago Law School and the Catholic University Law School, formerly known as Columbus University Law School, in Washington. Bergener was admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and California. On Oct. 21 in Los Angeles.

* Jessie Foveaux; ‘Any Given Day’ Author

Jessie Foveaux, 100, who published her popular memoirs, “Any Given Day,” at the age of 98. Born in Holden, Mo., Foveaux chronicled her hard life as an alcoholic’s wife who decided to divorce her husband and raise their eight children on her own. She worked in a laundry and as a nurse’s aide because, she wrote: “I made up my mind to live my life so that I need not be ashamed to look at myself in a mirror.” The book came about in a writing class for senior citizens in Manhattan, Kan., where Foveaux spent most of her life. An article about the book in the Wall Street Journal, to which she sent a manuscript, prompted a bidding war among publishers. In a 1997 auction, Warner Books paid her $1 million for publication rights. The book did not become a bestseller but earned Foveaux massive publicity and new experiences, such as flying, riding in limousines and appearing on television. On Saturday in Duluth, Minn., where she was on vacation.