ANNA RAMIREZ

Anna Aurora Ramirez, 91, passed away on September 20 in Corona, California with her loved ones nearby. Anna was born on July 28 to Ines Martinez and Anibal Berroa in Manhattan, New York City. She was raised in the Boerum Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn where as a small child she contracted polio and was frequently hospitalized but courageously overcame the permanent effects of the disease. She also lived through World War II knowing her Merchant Marine grandfather and her Army volunteer teenage uncle, who was like a brother to her, could suddenly perish on the high seas or in western Europe. After the war and high school graduation, Anna initially went to nursing school and eventually settled on secretarial trade school. As a young woman in the 1950s she enjoyed New York City's night life and frequently danced at the Palladium. However, she met the love of her life, handyman Cesar Ramirez, in her Brooklyn home where Cesar was hired by her grandparents to perform work. That meeting culminated in their marriage in 1960. Several years later, she, with their two very small children, followed Cesar back to Cuba to visit her ailing father-in-law. Not by choice, that visit became an almost four-year stay. Undeterred, she and the family were able to return to New York then resettle in Los Angeles County. She became a secretary eventually serving as the right-hand to various chiefs at the Los Angeles County Department of Social Services in a career spanning a quarter century. During her other full-time job, she successfully raised her three children with her mother Ines's help. After retiring from the county, she doted on her grandchildren. She was predeceased by her husband Cesar of over 50 years, her parents, her grandparents Maria Castelao and Rafael Reyes, and her uncle Rafael "Pipe" Reyes, Jr. She is survived by her daughter Marissa Gonzalez of Vernon, Arizona, her sons Genaro Cesar of San Diego and John Rafael of Corona, and their spouses William, Bertha and Jane. She is also survived by her grandchildren, Juan Pablo, Dawn, Carlina, Tiffany, Genaro III, Andres, John Rafael II, and Juliana, and her great-grandchildren Kolbin and Maceo Cesar. Funeral mass will be on Friday, October 4th at 10:30 a.m., Holy Cross Melkite Catholic Church, 451 W. Madison Ave., Placentia, CA, and burial will be on October 5th at 3 p.m. at Rose Hills Memorial Park, 3888 Workman Mill Rd., Whittier, CA.