Jesusita Garcia

On June 5, 1928, Jesusita “Chui” Peña Urias was born to parents Cruz Peña Urias and Francisco Urias, delivered at their Ft. Stockton home by Dr. William Moore. She joined siblings Juan Francisco Urias (b 1917), Jose “Joe” Rodolfo Urias (b 1922) and Diamantina Urias (b 1925). Maria “Mary” Urias was to be born in 1931. Parents and all siblings have preceded Jesusita in death. She died on January 19, 2022, in Buda, Texas.

Jesusita was proud that her mother convinced her father to send her and her sisters to college in an era when women were expected to aspire to become homemakers. They attended Sul Ross State University and all became schoolteachers. Although Jesusita began her career teaching in Galveston, she moved to California to teach in Bakersfield, where her daughter Monica U. Garcia was born, and then Los Angeles.  She and then husband Abel Garcia returned to their hometown Ft. Stockton in time for their son David U. Garcia to be born.

In Ft. Stockton, Jesusita taught 1000s of mostly first graders at Butz Elementary, and later Alamo School. Following in her mother’s example, she was a devout parishioner of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church.

Jesusita is survived by her daughter Monica (Buda, Texas) and son David (Helotes, Texas) and grandchildren Rebecca and Brian Garcia.