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Antonia Bernal, 91, ‘loved deeply’
A visitation will be held tomorrow for the native Tucsonan at Tucson Mortuary.
A visitation will be held tomorrow for Antonia Gallego Bernal, a Tucson native who was the cornerstone of a large family that includes 20 grandchildren, 42 great-grandchildren and 12 great-great-grandchildren.
Mrs. Bernal died Thursday surrounded by family members at her home in South Tucson. She was 91.
The visitation will be held from 4 to 10 p.m. at Tucson Mortuary, 204 S. Stone Ave.
Mass will be held at 10 a.m. Monday at Santa Cruz Church, 1220 S. Sixth Ave. Burial will be at Holy Hope Cemetery, 3555 N. Oracle Road.
Mrs. Bernal, who was born in Tucson in 1905, was raised on a ranch near Sahuarita, said one of her granddaughters, Isabel Burruel Smutzer.
”For a living she would make tamales. That’s how she’d get her livelihood, selling tamales for 50 cents a dozen,” Burruel Smutzer said. She said her grandmother stopped selling tamales in 1950.
But when she did make tamales for a living, one of Mrs. Bernal’s sons would ride on horseback to different ranches near the one she grew up at to sell the tamales, Burruel Smutzer said.
In the mid-1940s, Mrs. Bernal moved to a home in South Tucson, and lived there until her death.
Mrs. Bernal had been in poor health since suffering a stroke shortly before Thanksgiving, Burruel Smutzer said.
She said her grandmother was surrounded by family members ”around the clock” from the time of her stroke up until her death.
Burruel Smutzer described her grandmother as a ”very happy woman” who often would help those in need.
”She was always real good about helping the needy in the neighborhood,” her granddaughter said. ”They would come and she’d give them lunch. She was real good about that.”
Mrs. Bernal’s hobbies included listening to music, and playing a Mexican card game called La Malia .
”She’d like to have a beer once in a while,” Burruel Smutzer recalled, chuckling. ”She’d like to have a beer and play cards and eat chicken. She loved chicken.”
She couldn’t wait to see her family, her granddaughter said.
”She cried when you walked through the door, because she was so happy to see you and she cried when you left, because she was so sad to see you leave. It was so sincere,” Burruel Smutzer recalled.
She said her grandmother will be missed greatly.
”She was loved deeply. She’s left an impression on so many people,” Burruel Smutzer said.
Mrs. Bernal, married three times, outlived each husband and three of her children.
She is survived by three sons, Jesus Burruel, Fernando Burruel and José Bernal; two daughters, Virginia Tellez and Rosario Mendibles; and a sister, Genoveva Bermudez, all of Tucson.
(Dated Dec 28, 1996)
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Fred H. Landeen, noted anesthesiologist
Memorial services are scheduled for tomorrow at the Marshall Auditorium at TMC.
A memorial service will be held tomorrow for Fred Hixon Landeen, one of southern Arizona’s first anesthesiologists who was instrumental in many hospital advancements during his career.
Dr. Landeen, 72, died Friday of complications from diabetes.
The service will begin at 11 a.m. at the Marshall Auditorium at Tucson Medical Center, the hospital where Dr. Landeen worked for nearly 40 years.
He started the first recovery room in Arizona at TMC when he came to Tucson in 1955, said his daughter, Stephanie Emery, of Paradise Valley.
Some people didn’t even know what a recovery room was then, she said. And the first one wasn’t elaborate. ”He called it just a ‘niche in a hallway’ where they were able to put three stretchers.”
Dr. Landeen also helped start the first intensive care unit at TMC and the first ambulatory surgery center – in 1974. It was the first such center in southern Arizona and only the second one in the state at the time, she said.
Emery said she remembers when her father was part of a team that performed open heart surgery in the 1960s.
”It wasn’t very common then,” she said. ”It would take so long, sometimes all day, and be such a big deal.
”Then in the evening after a successful surgery they would have a potluck. All the nurses, the wives, all the kids came.”
In addition to his anesthesiology, Dr. Landeen practiced acupuncture, helping hundreds of ”addict smokers,” as he called them, kick the nicotine habit, she said.
During his career, Dr. Landeen was a founding president of the Pima County Society of Anesthesiologists, president of the Arizona Society of Anesthesiologists and chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology at TMC.
He also was president of the Arizona Medical Association, a clinical professor at the University of Arizona and medical director of TMC’s Ambulatory Surgery Center from 1975 to 1995.
In addition, he was a founding chief of staff at El Dorado Medical Center, president of Southwest Seminars, and a member of the board of directors of the Arizona Society of Anesthesiologists.
Dr. Landeen also was a 30-year member of the Tucson Conquistadors and a past president of the Tucson Country Club.
He was a gourmet cook, a golfer, a world traveler and ”loved to hunt and fish in Alaska,” Emery said.
People remember him for his good sense of humor and his intelligence, she said.
Besides Emery, Dr. Landeen is survived by two sons, Jonathan and Christopher, both of Tucson; another daughter, Cynthia Landeen of Eugene, Ore.; and four grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife, Elizabeth Rae, in 1991.
Family members suggest donations be made to the American Diabetes Association, 40 N. Swan Road, Tucson, Ariz. 85711.
(Dated Jan 01, 1997)
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Midwife Alvarez, 104, aided neighbors
Loretta Lucero Alvarez not only helped deliver much of Tucson’s Pascua Yaqui community as a midwife, but she acted as surrogate mother to dozens of others on the reservations.
”People would always be over. It was a real welcome, open house,” said Olga Romero, her granddaughter. ”It’s like everybody knew they could visit.”
Ms. Alvarez, after whom Kino Community Hospital’s labor delivery unit was named, died Monday.
Although she was generally credited with being 104 years old, Romero said family members believe Ms. Alvarez was at least 110.
She was born in northern Mexico, Romero said. She later married Luis Alvarez, a railroad worker. They lived in Nogales, Ariz., for several years before moving to Tucson after World War I.
Ms. Alvarez is best remembered as a midwife who spent more than 50 years helping deliver babies. Until she was about 80 years old, Ms. Alvarez would minister care to anyone, whether Yaqui or not, who needed her at delivery time.
She had 14 children of her own, but only one son, Pedro Alvarez, is still living. Aside from her children, 27 grandchildren, 70 great grandchildren and 45 great-great grandchildren, she had a stream of friends and neighborhood children who called her ”Mama” or ”Nana.”
Ms. Alvarez was fluent in both Yaqui and Spanish, but had never attended school. She continued to host friends and family on a regular basis in recent years.
In August 1994, Kino Community Hospital named its labor and delivery unit after her. Hospital officials, wanting to promote the sense of community and compassion in their midwife program, said Ms. Alvarez was the perfect choice.
”That’s something I really don’t want to be forgotten,” Romero said. ”She really did a lot for the Yaqui Nation.”
A memorial service will be held Friday at Romero’s house, 725 W. Calle Sur, beginning at 4 p.m., followed by a rosary at 7.
The service will continue into the night as part of Yaqui tradition, Romero said. A Mass will be held Saturday at 9 a.m. at Santa Rosa Mission, 2015 N. Calle Central, followed by burial at Holy Hope Cemetery, 3555 N. Oracle Road.
(Dated Jan 01, 1997)
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Kennedy was devoted to Habitat
When Jack Kennedy retired eight years ago, he pursued two of his passions – helping others, and photography – as a Tucson volunteer with Habitat for Humanity.
A memorial service will be held tomorrow for Mr. Kennedy, 83, who died Monday of pneumonia. The service will start at 3 p.m. in the lobby of The Fountains at La Cholla retirement center, 2001 W. Rudasill Road, where he lived.
”He was a caring, sensitive individual who wanted to help anyone in need,” said Bob Tinker, a board member of Habitat for Humanity, which builds homes for the needy.
To raise money for the program, Mr. Kennedy would take pictures and offer them for sale, said Lois Kennedy, his wife of 48 years. He never priced the photos but accepted donations for Habitat.
”People were very generous,” she said.
He also sponsored speakers who came to the center to promote Habitat for Humanity, Tinker said.
That was successful, he said. ”They helped build several houses, about six or so.”
Mr. Kennedy became involved when one of the residents in the retirement center enlisted him and others to participate in the program, his wife said.
”We got involved with a needy family who received one of the houses. They were so proud.”
Mr. Kennedy retired from his computer software manufacturing job in Sherman Oaks, Calif., eight years ago and moved to Tucson.
”That’s where we met, in Sherman Oaks,” Lois Kennedy said. He was born in Elmhurst, Ill.
He never had the luxury of a formal education in computer technology, she added. ”He was self-taught. He just learned his job.”
Besides his wife, Mr. Kennedy is survived by his sister, Betty Ullrich of Sierra Vista, and nephew Wayne Clarke of Lafayette, Colo.
Donations may be made in Mr. Kennedy’s name to Habitat for Humanity, P.O. Box 43235, Tucson, Ariz. 85733.
(Dated Jan 01, 1997)
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