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Francisco Gallego loved riding
Funeral services for lifelong Tucsonan Francisco V. Gallego were scheduled for 9 a.m. today at Our Lady Queen of All Saints church.
Mr. Gallego died Wednesday of complications from heart surgery. He was 76.
He was born on Sept. 24, 1921, to Florencio and Mercedes Gallego, a pioneer Arizona family that homesteaded the Ocotillo Ranch south of Tucson in 1912.
He attended school here, later serving with the U.S. Army in the European theater during World War II.
He was married to Erlinda Gastelum Jan. 24, 1942.
Mr. Gallego was an avid horseman and expert roper, often competing in rodeo competitions at Sells and Sacaton.
”He taught his nephews and grandkids to ride and rope,” said his son, Frank Gallego. ”He loved cowboy things – boots, hats. He wanted everybody to be a cowboy. And he loved his grandkids, always encouraging them to go to school.”
The younger Gallego added, ”He was a strong family man, a strong patriarch. He instilled honesty, hard work and strong values.”
Mr. Gallego was self-employed for several years, operating a sand and gravel company, later going to work at the Pima County Rabies Control Center. He was medically retired with heart problems in the mid-1970s.
Survivors include his wife of 55 years, Erlinda; a son, Frank Gallego of Tucson; three daughters, Irene Badilla, Artemisa Lopez and Gracie Rodriguez, all of Tucson; six sisters, Lupe Trejo, Cruz Badilla, Antonia Trejo, Lydia Santa Cruz, Lolita Garcia and Delia Barredo, all of Tucson; three brothers, Casimiro Gallego and Mike Gallego, both of Tucson, and Armando Gallego of Upland, Calif.; 13 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
The service at Our Lady Queen of All Saints, 2915 E. 36th St., will be followed by the burial at Holy Hope Cemetery, 3555 N. Oracle Road.
(Dated Jan 10, 1998)
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Ex-Wildcat coach ‘Sharkey’ Price, 76
Royal A. ”Sharkey” Price, defensive line coach under four University of Arizona head football coaches from 1964-77, died Tuesday in Laurel, Mont.
Mr. Price, 76, a great offensive lineman in the 1940s under Gen. Bob Neyland at the University of Tennessee, had been ill with cancer for some time.
He is survived by his wife, Geneva; daughters Jennifer, Barbara and Betty; and six grandchildren.
Services and burial will be tomorrow in Laurel. Smith Funeral Chapel in Laurel is in charge of arrangements.
Mr. Price was born Feb. 28, 1921, in Johnstown, Pa. He served in the Army during World War II, from 1943-45, resumed his education and earned a bachelor’s degree at Tennessee in 1948.
After one year as an assistant at Tennessee, he coached four years at Cartersville (Ga.) High School. He then served four years as an assistant at Kansas State, two years at Houston and five years at Southern Methodist.
Mr. Price then coached at Mesa High, where his 1963 team was 11-0 and won the state Class AA championship. He joined the UA coaching staff under longtime friend Jim LaRue the next year.
He coached at Arizona under LaRue from 1964-66, Darrell Mudra (1967-68), Bob Weber (1969-72) and Jim Young, (1973-76).
Cecil R. ”Corky” Taylor, a great running back at Kansas State and for many years an administrator at Arizona, knew Mr. Price well.
”Sharkey was on the coaching staff at K-State when I played, and later when I was an assistant there,” Taylor said.
”Then, when I came to UA, I was not in the athletic department but Sharkey was on the Wildcat coaching staff. He was a tremendous coach and motivator, a man who loved football and loved to teach it.”
Ed Linta of Oro Valley played tight end and defensive end at Kansas State from 1951-54. Mr. Price was his position coach.
”Sharkey had great, positive influence on a lot of young men’s lives,” Linta said. ”He was a fierce competitor on the field, but a real gentleman off the field.”
(Dated Jan 15, 1998)
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Mass, burial today for photographer Eugene Lohberg
A Mass for Eugene Edward Lohberg, who photographed countless weddings in the Tucson area over more than four decades, was to be celebrated at 10 a.m. today at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, 1375 S. Camino Seco.
Burial was to follow at Our Lady of the Desert Cemetery, 2151 S. Avenida los Reyes.
Mr. Lohberg, 82, died Tuesday in Tucson after a short fight with lung cancer.
He was born April 30, 1915, in Des Moines, Iowa. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II, earning a Bronze Star.
Mr. Lohberg and his wife, Corinne, were married in Dubuque, Iowa. They celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary before her death two years ago.
The couple moved to Tucson in 1946, and opened Lohberg Studio, 537 S. Fifth Ave., six years later.
The studio specialized in weddings, portraits and commercial photography. It closed in 1993 when Mr. Lohberg retired.
”Over the years, my father photographed thousands of weddings,” said his son, Jay. ”Because of this, he knew most of the rabbis, Catholic priests and other clergy around town, and was on a first-name basis with most of them.”
That close association prompted Mr. Lohberg to do a lot of charity photography, as well. He donated his time and talents for churches and other organizations, his son said.
”He photographed celebrities, too – Klinger from ‘M*A*S*H,’ Abbott and Costello back in the ’50s, Raymond Burr and others.
”My dad had a real knack for jumping right in there, into a nervous crowd, and getting them to relax. He was known for his humor and warmth – he could bust up a crowd, put them at ease in a hurry.”
He added, ”He loved doing woodworking, and finally got to do it in retirement – making owls, roadrunners and other things. Everybody wanted one – kids, grand kids, relatives.”
Mr. Lohberg was a member of the Arizona Professional Photographers Association.
Survivors include five sons, Richard and Jim Lohberg of Tucson, Paul Lohberg of Orange, Calif., Jerry Lohberg of Spring, Texas, and Jay Lohberg of Tempe; a daughter, Joan Fowler of Tucson; 12 grandchildren; and 13 greatgrandchildren.
The family suggests memorials to Tucson Medical Center Hospice, 5301 E. Grant Road, Tucson, 85712.
(Dated Jan 17, 1998)
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Tucson’s world-record-holding Santa is dead
A memorial service will be held Saturday for Tucsonan Dayton C. Fouts, who played Santa Claus for 60 years – which won him a spot in the Guinness Book of Records.
Mr. Fouts, 85, died Sunday of cardiac arrest from kidney failure, said his daughter Alta J. Zurek.
The service is set for 10 a.m. at St. Pius X Church, 1800 N. Camino Pio Decimo.
Mr. Fouts began his career as ”Santa” in 1937, after noting that some of the department store St. Nicks he saw didn’t treat the role with proper dignity – sometimes lifting their fake beards to sip sodas.
”I just couldn’t go for that,” he said in a 1993 Tucson Citizen interview. He prided himself on his natural beard.
Mr. Fouts played Santa in his hometown of Harvey, Ill., where he operated a heating and air-conditioning business for 56 years. He moved to Tucson in 1992 and continued the tradition.
Fouts was recognized in the 1998 Guinness Book of Records for his long Santa tenure.
His daughter assumed the role of ”Mrs. Santa” for his appearances in 1968 after the death of her mother, who had played Mrs. Santa.
His last public Santa appearance was Dec. 14 at a Tucson Boys Chorus concert, though he donned the garb for family members on his birthday Jan. 6.
Zurek said her father had been selected best-looking Santa in the country in 1979 by National Enquirer.
She said the family went online a year ago in an effort to keep in touch with the many youngsters Mr. Fouts had entertained over the years.
A touching e-mail message came in, after his death was made known on the Internet, from three youngsters from China who met ”Santa” about four years ago.
Survivors include his daughter, Alta J. Zurek; sons Dayton N., Albert W. and Charles A. Fouts; five grandchildren; and seven greatgrandchildren.
(Dated Jan 29, 1998)
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Rancher-author Wilbur-Cruce dies at age 93
• She ran the family ranch until 1989 and wrote ‘A Beautiful, Cruel Country.’
PAUL L. ALLEN Citizen Staff Writer
When she was 5, she learned to ride a horse with her father to check waterholes for cattle.
So it seemed natural that Eva Antonia ”Bonnie” Wilbur-Cruce was the only child in her family to choose the rigors of ranch life as a career south of Tucson.
Mrs. Wilbur-Cruce, who wrote a book about her days in Arivaca, died Friday. She was 93.
Funeral services are scheduled Saturday morning at St. Augustine Cathedral.
Mrs. Wilbur-Cruce was born in 1904 on a ranch between Arivaca and Sasabe, homesteaded in the late 1880s by her grandfather, Reuben Augustine Wilbur.
Ranch life was harsh, she recalled, and she was expected to do whatever work was required.
”I didn’t see another girl,” she recalled in a 1987 interview. ”I didn’t know what it was to be a girl. I knew what it was to be a boy, because that’s the way I was brought up.”
In her book, ”A Beautiful, Cruel Country,” published by University of Arizona Press, she details her early years and learning about wildlife with her father, Augustine Wilbur.
”I wanted to write a letter to my nephews,” she told the Citizen. ”They didn’t know anything about the animals and the countryside.
”It was sad. I started to write a letter and ended up writing this book.”
Mrs. Wilbur-Cruce was the eldest of five children. When she was 13, her parents sent her to Woodbury College, a convent school in Los Angeles.
When her father was thrown from a horse and killed, she returned to run the ranch, which included 472 patented acres and 1,170 leased acres.
Soon after her return to Arizona, she married Marshall Cruce, a Springfield, Mo., native who had moved to Tucson.
The couple operated the ranch until 1989, when Mr. Cruce died.
The following year, Mrs. Wilbur-Cruce sold all but 10 acres of the ranch and the ranch house to the Nature Conservancy.
The conservancy, in turn, sold it to the federal government for inclusion in the Buenos Aires Wildlife Refuge operated by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
Fish & Wildlife, the federal agency operating the refuge, required Mrs. Wilbur-Cruce to remove a herd of about 100 virtually pure-blooded Spanish barb horses.
The horses descended from a herd purchased by Reuben Wilbur in Magdalena, Son., where Jesuit Father Eusebio Francisco Kino established a herd in the late 1600s from horses brought from Spain by explorers and missionaries.
She donated the horses to the American Minor Breeds Conservancy. The group distributed them to breeders in California, Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona, with the agreement that bloodlines would remain pure.
Mrs. Wilbur-Cruce moved to Tucson after the ranch was sold, living with her grandnephew, Robert Zimmerman, whom she had reared from an infant on the ranch. She had no children of her own.
”She was very motherly at times,” Zimmerman recalled, ”but if you got out of line, she could scold you verbally right back into a corner. Even to the end, she was tough. That’s the way she was.”
She had her spiritual side as well. In a Citizen interview, Mrs. Wilbur-Cruce said of the ranch: ”I used to go out and be alone. That’s where you relate to the animals, that’s where you hear the wind sing, that’s where you develop extrasensory perception.”
She resented later changes to the ranch, however, and lamented that it ”would never be the same.”
Survivors include Zimmerman and her great-grandniece, Eva Marie Zimmerman of Tucson; and many other nieces and nephews.
Visitation is scheduled from 4 to 10 p.m. Friday at the North Chapel of Carrillo’s Tucson Mortuary, 204 S. Stone Ave. A rosary will be recited at 7 p.m.
Mass will be celebrated Saturday at 9 a.m. at St. Augustine Cathedral, 192 S. Stone Ave., with interment to follow at Holy Hope Cemetery.
(Dated Feb 04, 1998)
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