Ernie Chacon 1930-2019

From GIOVANNA CHACON:

Ernie Chacon was born Ernest Richard Theodore Chacon in Los Angeles, California on September 4, 1930 to Fern Ellen Baker Chacon and Ernest Chacon. He died on November 27, 2019 in Tucson, Arizona.
Ernie had a full, creative and extraordinary time on this plane. He lived in North Hollywood through his school years. He graduated North Hollywood High where he played the equivalent of tight end on the Varsity Football team. He was proud to have played “both ways”. He was also on the Varsity team at what is now LA Valley College. He loved football and was an avid fan. He was also a keen student of the sport until the kneeling shenanigans in pro-football made him turn his back. A uncompromising man of his word, he never watched another pro game after that.

He was married young and a father at 21. He had 2 sons and 2 daughters. With a family to provide for, he left Valley College to work in air freight and other fields-- sometime holding down 3 jobs at once to support his family.

In 1963 a friend help him break into union work in the entertainment business and he began taking daily calls through the IATSE sound local. His ambition in high school where he reported on sports for the school paper had been to work as a newspaper journalist. He was thrilled to be hired onto the staff of NBC News in Burbank in 1964. He worked as a soundman for the network and then for the local station from 1964 to 1975. In 1976 he joined the Burbank EJ (electronic journalism) staff as a camera man. The very first story he shot for the station won a Local Emmy for the editor. He would recount that when the editor accepted the award she thanked everyone in the building but him!

Ernie left NBC News in the summer of 1989. He was going to work on a six months off – six months on plan when he left, but accepted a buyout in January of 1990. By then he was hard at work building a house in Philo, California --the heart of the North Coast wine country. The home he built -- almost single-handedly -- was based on the design of a 16th century Japanese Farm House. The finished project was stunning example of his artistic soul.

Ernie road dirt bike desert enduros on a Greeves bike and commuted to NBC Burbank from Glendale on a street Harley. He and Giovanna made a cross country motorcycle trip from LA to New Jersey in 1980 on a Honda Goldwing to move Giovanna’s parents to California.

Ernie and Giovanna were avid campers and had been RV and motorcycle camping in every state but Hawaii. They loved bird watching and hiking and Ernie loved his pets – especially a succession of dogs. There wasn’t a toddler or dog or cat who didn’t like Ernie at first sight.

A voracious reader he was an omnivore and never forgot what he read. He loved opera and all classical music – particularly Wagner’s Ring Cycle. In 2008, Ernie and Giovanna sold their home in Philo to move to Tucson, AZ.

He had a sly wit and was a great raconteur. He always found a ready audience for his tales of “being there” --up close and personal -- at momentous times with some of the most noteworthy personalities of the second half of the 20th century. In his eighties, as a legacy for his family, he began writing these experiences down. The family plans to these pieces as a book in the near future.

Ernie is not a man you’d soon forget if you ever had the pleasure of meeting him. In the words of his son, Michael: “The only way you get to live a life like that, is if you chase it!” The chase is done now. Ernie. It’s time to rest in peace in the presence of your Lord and Savior.

Ernie is survived by his second wife, Giovanna M Nigro Chacon, son, Michael E Chacon of Boise, ID and daughter, Lisa Seberger of Las Vegas, NV, 13 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren; a sister, Cathryn Valenzuela, of Napa, California 3 nieces, and 5 great grand nephews. A son, Stephen and a daughter, Natalie, predeceased him.

In lieu of flowers, Ernie would have liked donations in his name to St Jude Hospital in Memphis, Tn.