MARIA LUISA RONQUILLO

1918 - 2018

Maria Luisa Ronquillo was born in Aldama, Chihuahua, Mexico 100 years ago this week on January 5, 1918. She lived with her loving parents, Lilia Fraire Ronquillo and Carlos Ronquillo. In 1939, Maria married Jose Salvador Marquez in El Paso, TX. They raised three children, Maria Concepcion (Connie), a Doctor of Organic Chemistry, born in Yorktown, TX, Jose Salvador, Jr., a master jazz horn player and retired member of the Tonight Show Band, born in El Paso, TX, and Omar Orlando, a Romance language scholar and medical transcriptionist, born in Edinburg, TX. Maria received her undergraduate degree from Pan American College (part of the University of Texas system) in the 1950s and became an elementary school teacher. The Marquez family moved to Brawley, California in 1967, where both parents continued to work as teachers in the Brawley school system. While living in Brawley, Maria received her Masters degree in Education from San Diego State University and became a college professor at Imperial Valley College. Following the deaths of her husband, and and later her daughter, Maria moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to help raise her only grandchild. She returned to California in 1989, where she lived in retirement in Los Angeles with her two sons. Maria attended the temple weekly with a group of church friends until her health prevented it. She served a number of callings in the church, including as a primary teacher. Family and friends describe the two constant pillars of her life as family and faith. Maria Ronquillo Marquez was predeceased by her parents, many siblings, husband, only daughter, Connie Marquez Hoiness, and within the last year, son, Orlando. Maria is survived by her son, Salvador Marquez, Jr. of Los Angeles; granddaughter, Valerie Hoiness Cripe of St. Paul, Minnesota; sister, Susana Jordan of Los Angeles, and brother ,Johnny Barela of Las Cruces, New Mexico, along with a large and loving extended family and many, many friends. Marias grave dedication and burial will be 10 a.m. at Riverview Cemetery in Brawley on her 100th birthday, January 5, 2018. All are welcome.