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Lisle Funeral Home

1605 L Street

Fresno, California

RUTH HERNANDEZ Obituary

Ruth, a lifelong Fresnan and beloved sister, wife, mother and grandmother, passed away Tuesday at her home in Fresno after being diagnosed with lung cancer in July. She was 85 years old. In 1942, in a garlic patch on the outskirts of Fresno County in Las Deltas, Ruth Velasquez was delivering lunch to farmworkers when she met Ruben Hernandez. They were both 16. One year later they eloped, and together they raised a family that over the next seven decades would come to rely on her for her strength and her wisdom, her homemade tortillas and her hand-sewn dresses. She was a businesswoman, seamstress, parish leader, Election Day pollworker, neighborhood volunteer and, in her later years, an at-home caretaker to her ailing husband. She did not move mountains. She moved houses. For nearly 25 years, Mrs. Hernandez helped her husband run the San Joaquin Valley Housemoving Company, which moved hundreds of homes, school buildings and churches throughout the Central Valley in a gritty yet delicate dance of trucks and beams and jacks. For a time, the company was the only one of its kind operating in Fresno. After the business closed in 1987, she started a second career, working full-time in fabric stores. At home or in a store, she sent relatives, neighbors and complete strangers off into the world with clothes, cutains and costumes she cut and designed. Hundreds of her creations, many of them made without charge, are hanging in closets around the Valley. As a mother and grandmother, she was one of a kind: unconventional in her words and deeds, full of moxie, a woman raised dirt-poor and barefoot in the farmlands of the Valley with just an eighth-grade education who taught herself how to cook, how to drive, how to sew, how to manage money and, most importantly, how to live. She loved deeply, laughed loudly and spoke frankly. She was known by her friends and family as Cuca, but her given name as an infant was Refugio. It means refuge. A daughter of the late Frank "Pancho" and the late Paulina Camarena. She is survived by her husband, Ruben Hernandez; her son, Ruben Hernandez Jr. and daughter-in-law, Irene; two sisters, Phyllis Hernandez and Frances Morales; a brother, John Martinez; six grandchildren, Ruben Hernandez III, Alvina Hernandez-Cooley and her husband Eric Cooley, Gabriel Fernandez, Manny Fernandez and his wife, Michelle O'Donnell, Robert Hernandez and Monica Hernandez. Four great-grandchildren and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins also survive her. Her daughter, Paulina Hernandez DeCheney, 50; her son, Georgie Hernandez, seven and her granddaughter, Irene "Baby" Hernandez, 15, preceded her in death. Her family would like to thank Cheryl Weber, Margot Hawkin-Franklin and everyone at Saint Agnes Home Health and Hospice for the care and comfort they provided her. A Viewing will be held Lisle Funeral Home, on Sunday, November 6, 2011 starting, at 10:00 a.m. and followed by the Recitation of the Holy Rosary at 7:00 pm. A Mass Christian Burial at St. Alphonsus Church, on Monday, November 7, 2011 at 10:00 am. Burial to follow at St. Peters Cemetery.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by Fresno Bee on Nov. 3, 2011.

Memories and Condolences
for RUTH HERNANDEZ

Not sure what to say?





Tina Ortiz (Benavides)

November 16, 2011

I will forever have the best memories of visiting and living (temporarily) with Cuca and Ruben. Finally, you can rest.

Charleen Bright

November 7, 2011

Love you very very much and will miss you so much. Thank you for all the love and support you gave to my family.

Richard (chito) Amavisca Tarazon

November 7, 2011

You are truly going to be missed by everyone my cousin.Love you.

Gabriel Fernandez

November 3, 2011

Grandma, your kindness, blessings, and spirit will be a guide, a beacon, that will never fade, will shine on, forever to light the way. . Miss and love you always and forever. .

Tina Alcantar

November 3, 2011

Hi Ruth. I didn't know you long, but your kindness and laughter warmed my heart every time I saw you. You touched everyones heart and will truly be missed. Thank you for the memories. Love you.

Monica Hernandez

November 3, 2011

Hi Grandma. I still can't believe you are gone. You have taught me so much. My heart still hurts to know that I will never hear your voice. Hear you laugh. Nor will I never feel your arms around me. I miss you so much Grandma. I will always love you.

November 3, 2011

Miss you grandma...love always your grandson. Ruben Hernandez III.

Raul Hernandez Jr.

November 3, 2011

She was my aunt. I didn't see her much in her and I's later years, but she and my whole family ( the Hernandez's) have always been in my thoughts and will be for ever.

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Funeral services provided by:

Lisle Funeral Home

1605 L Street, Fresno, CA 93721

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