How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – Some people dream about living big, full lives, and others actually manage to do it.
That’s how those who knew and loved Clifford Hellgren think of his 81 years of life.
Hellgren is a man who is remembered as having a big heart, a big voice and a big smile.
Talented and charismatic, he was, his daughter Audrey Atkins recalls, both a renaissance man and a bit of a rascal, with a great sense of humor and a devoted sense of fun.
Expert with a chainsaw or whipping up something fantastic in the kitchen, “He could just do anything,” she said.
“I don't know anybody that disliked him. Everybody loved him,” said his best friend and life partner, Dennis Pluth, who recounted what a thoughtful and generous gentleman Hellgren was.
The full details of the crash that took his life on May 18 still aren't exactly clear to his family, who said they've been told by the California Highway Patrol that the investigation is still under way.
Hellgren had been crossing Sulphur Bank Road in a 2013 Kubota RTV 900, a small utility vehicle, while feeding livestock that morning when he was hit by a driver later arrested for driving under the influence, as Lake County News has reported.
However, the abrupt end to his life, as devastating as it has been for those who loved him, isn't the measure of the life he led. At his May 24 memorial service, hundreds of friends came out to share stories of his big, expressive life, and its impact on them, his family said.
Almost always in motion, Hellgren worked hard his whole life, but he balanced that work with a fair amount of play and adventure.
Pluth recalled Hellgren's warmth, his kindness and the way he would greet people with a smile, hug or handshake.
Hellgren was the grandson of Swedish immigrants. His parents, Hugo and Edith Hellgren, came west to California, where he was born Oct. 24, 1934, in Nevada City. The Hellgrens had a big family, with five sons and four daughters.
When he was still a child, his family moved to Lake County. Pluth said Hugo Hellgren worked in the Sulphur Bank Mine.
“We've known them forever,” Pluth said of his family and the Hellgren clan, who he had met when he was still a child.
“They were a very musical family,” Pluth recalled, noting that Edith Hellgren played the piano and Hugo Hellgren played the fiddle at local dances that Pluth's parents attended.
He said the Hellgrens lived in Burns Valley and Cliff Hellgren went to Burns Valley Elementary School and Lower Lake High School. Pluth went to East Lake School, but all of the children would meet up while going to the movies in Lower Lake and stopping by the candy store that used to sit on the town's corner.
As they grew up, Pluth said they drifted apart. Hellgren married Dorothy Joan McHenry, with whom he had daughters D'Anna, Audrey and Roxann.
Hellgren spent four years in the Navy, most of it stationed in Hawaii, Pluth said. Later, Hellgren worked with his brother in heavy construction.
“We met up again probably in 1960 or sometime around then when we both got back into Lake County,” Pluth said.
During their time together, Pluth said Hellgren worked for 26 years for Brassfield Enterprises as ranch manager, cook and horse wrangler at High Serenity Ranch, before it became a winery.
When hosting people at the ranch, Hellgren was known for making tall and tasty banana cream pies and filling the table with delicious, down-home cooking. When they visited friends' homes, Pluth said the hostesses often wrangled Hellgren into coming into the kitchen to make his fantastic gravy.
Hellgren cooked like his mother – without measuring anything, just eyeballing it – and had a highly developed ability for identifying the ingredients in things he didn't cook, according to Pluth.
He loved the outdoors, horses and riding, and enjoyed hunting and fishing. Hellgren and Pluth would travel all around Northern California and even up to Alaska for fishing. Hellgren also was an abalone diver and known for his abalone dinners, Pluth said.
Hellgren also spent many happy times with his longtime girlfriend, Toni Cochran of Clearlake Oaks. Atkins said her father and Cochran also fished and traveled together, and shared “a lot of good quality time” over some 30 years.
He was active in many local groups such as Lake County Horsemans Association and Lake County Sheriff's Posse, and had twice been president of the Clearlake Oaks Lions Club.
He also was extremely patriotic, and loved his country, Pluth recalled.
And, then, of course, there was the music.
Among Hellgren's many talents, the one that for many will be how they remember him most is for his musical ability, and it was a big part of his life.
Hellgren was an outstanding singer who had a huge fan club. Pluth said he was a “Marty Robbins clone” who knew and admired the famed country singer.
Pluth recalled going to Sparks, Nev., where Robbins was playing at the Nugget, and hitting a $75 payout on a dime machine. Hellgren had been fretting about getting a good seat to see Robbins, but Pluth made sure to tip well and got them down front. When Robbins came out, he saw Hellgren and greeted him from the stage.
Hellgren also would open for Hank Williams Jr., who was so impressed with him that he invited him back out to play with his band, Pluth said.
He would go on to receive the Top Country Music Award for Northern California Top Male Artist in 1977, a key achievement in his musical career.
Pluth recalled Hellgren's amazing energy. After working all day in construction, he would bartend at a saloon in Lower Lake. He became known as the “singing bartender,” and would have people packed three or four deep to hear him. “He never had time to bartend.”
For another decade and a half, Hellgren enjoyed a huge following of fans who came to hear him play on Friday and Saturday nights at the Oaks Corral, a venue that stood where Nylander Park is now, Pluth said. He also played for the local firemen’s dances.
With his big following and talent, Hellgren could have pursued a professional music career. But he chose not to, despite people wanting to back him, Pluth remembered.
Pluth said it may have been a fear of failure in attempting to enter the tough music industry. Hellgren often said he would do an album one day, but another year would pass, and his album hadn't become a reality.
Or, maybe, it was that life in Lake County with Pluth on the Homestead Ranch was really where he was happiest – the place where he was most at home, and where he often was off riding around after the cows with one of his dogs.
“He always named his dogs after presidents,” Pluth said.
There was Herbert Hoover, who died. Most recently there was Abraham – named, of course, for Lincoln – a devoted border collie who went everywhere with Hellgren.
As he got older, Hellgren would still sing a bit – mostly while up working out in the weight room – and if people pleaded with him, Pluth said.
Once he retired, Hellgren still stayed in almost constant motion. “The ranch pretty much took up all his time,” Atkins said.
Until the end of his life, he had been in great physical shape, working out daily and planning to live to 100, joking with his children that he would outlive them, Atkins said.
He would be up early in the morning to feed, with Abraham at his side. Atkins recalled how much her father and his dog loved each other.
Abraham was with Hellgren on the day of the crash. “He was going across to do the morning feeding like he always did,” said Atkins.
Hellgren often told people to be careful when crossing Sulphur Bank Road because of the way people speed through the area, both Atkins and Pluth said.
“I know he was very careful about crossing that road,” Atkins said.
She added, recalling the day of the crash, “It was one of those phone calls you hope to never get.”
Abraham, who was thrown from the vehicle and injured during the collision, is recovering, Pluth said. Atkins had wanted to bring Abraham to the memorial service but ultimately he stayed home. Pluth said the dog hardly moved for the first 10 days after the crash, and remained by the side of the bed where Hellgren had slept.
Abraham is doing better these days, Pluth said. However, he continues to look for his friend, and whenever a car drives up, Abraham goes to look, expecting that maybe Hellgren has finally come home. “He's still looking for him.”
In the month since his death, those who remember Hellgren have shared their reminiscences and favorite memories with his family.
Pluth estimated he must have received 80 sympathy cards in Hellgren's memory.
As for how he is doing, Pluth said he's managing and is doing OK. He and Hellgren's nephew recently placed a memorial cross for Hellgren at the roadside near where the crash took place, played Marty Robbins' “El Paso” and had a few drinks of whiskey in a little spontaneous ceremony.
Hellgren was predeceased by his former wife, Dorothy McHenry, as well as by most of his siblings, with the exception of Blossom Wade, his youngest sister, who lives in Upper Lake.
In addition to Wade and Pluth, Hellgren's survivors include his three daughters, D'Anna Langhorne and her husband Brian of Clearlake, Audrey Atkins of Lakeport and Roxann Weiper and husband Tom of Clearlake. Survivors also include seven grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren, many nieces and nephews, and his innumerable friends, including Toni Cochran.
Those who wish to donate in his memory are encouraged by the family to make a contribution to a favorite organization in Hellgren's name.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
