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Adding to the recent avalanche of deaths in the NSAA, old vet Mason Hanna recently passed away at age 80 from a stroke he suffered at a convalescent home in Orange County. He had been admitted there about a year ago after the chemo and drugs for prostate cancer put him into a condition to where his third wife, Francine LLorens could no longer care for him.
Mason was born in San Gabriel and graduated Mark Keppel HS in 1964. He
started playing NSAA ball in 1985 when he was brought around by Billy D. He obviously took a liking to it as he showed up for 163 total nights, running all the way thru the 2002 season. This placed him at #43 on the all-time list. Along the way he picked up the White Chip of the Year hardware in 1990, 1994 and 1995. He was also a big junketeer and horseplayer, having made the Del Mar beach bash 22 times, always rooming with Billy and Roger.
Billy recounts that Mason and he had met up years earlier (in 1963) when both attended teen dances at the Pasadena Civic auditorium on Saturday nights. That venue bled over into Anaheim at the Dick Dale surf guitar dances held every Friday and Sunday nights year round. That’s where both Dave P and the Commissioner first met the boy. Don’t know why we didn’t recruit him then.
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A few years later, Mason hooked up with one of our All-time teamers, John Burrows, to form a band called The Lost Souls, a group that at one time also included NSAAer Mickey Wells and, of course, Billy D himself. But that arrangement didn’t last long as Uncle Sam needed his assistance in Viet Nam, a gig that he was lucky to survive with all 4 limbs intact, as one day the truck he was driving hit a land mine. Yikes.
Mason had a tumultuous love life while all this transpired. He first married Linda Smith in 1970 in Glendale at age 24. Shortly thereafter the couple moved to Basalt (Aspen) Colorado where they had 2 kids, Brandon and Jenny. But in the mid-70s the marriage broke up and Mason moved back to LA. He then met and married Susan Clausen and had a son with her. In time, that marriage failed too but in 2005 or thereabouts, he met Francine who had been with him for the last 20 years.
As far as occupations go, Mason worked in a coal mine and a restaurant while living in Colorado, then returned home to LA and became a bar tender, a trade he plied for a couple of decades at the Whittier Narrows golf course.
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Mason celebrates his first trophy, the White Chip in 1990.
Mason used to love him a Del Mar Junket.