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Apr. 4--Carol Mon Pere grew up in small-town Fresno before and during World War II and later put her memories to use as a San Francisco writer of stage, screen and television works.
Ms. Mon Pere died of cancer Wednesday at home in Tiburon. She was 75. A memorial Mass will be celebrated Friday in the Chapel at San Domenico School in San Anselmo.
Ms. Mon Pere wrote dramas and documentaries including "The Battle of Westlands" in 1980, which she also produced and directed with co-producer Sandra Nichols.
The Emmy-winning documentary examined how imported water transformed -- at a cost -- what had been desert land into bountiful production of Central Valley agriculture.
Ms. Mon Pere wrote and directed the film "Pink Lightning" in 1991, mining memories of teenage friends she had known in Fresno before leaving to attend Stanford University.
Ms. Mon Pere earned her master's degree in theater arts at Catholic University in Washington.
Her other works included the play "Now in the Center Ring" and television and film works such as "Elena," "The Extraordinary Adventures of the Mouse and his Child," "French Silk" and "The Borrowers."
"Right to the time of her death, she was still writing," says a brother, Fresno clothier Patrick James Mon Pere of Fresno. "She was prolific, a writer and director of fiction and documentaries. Her work always referred to the Valley. 'Pink Lightning' definitely was set in Fresno and involved people she grew up with."
Dr. Gerald Mon Pere of Fresno, another brother, says Ms. Mon Pere began writing in earnest during her high school years. She was especially interested in dialog, staging and characters' interaction.
"She had a talent for putting together conversations, give and take," Mon Pere says.
Ms. Mon Pere, who lived with her husband, David Becker, in Tiburon, became a writer before there were many female role models, says daughter Lisa deFaria of Pacific Grove. Wanting that career, Ms. Mon Pere left the San Joaquin Valley.
"I think she wanted out," deFaria says. "Her politics, her consciousness in what was the small town of 1950s Fresno -- she wanted to become part of something larger."
The family requests that any remembrance be sent to San Domenico School in San Anselmo or to Doctors Without Borders in New York.
The reporter can be reached at jsteinberg@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6311.
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Fresno Bee, Calif.
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