Lela Martinez

LELA MARTINEZ Funeral Mass for lifelong Mancos resident Lela Martinez will be held at 10 a.m. on Monday, March 19 at St. Rita Catholic Church in Mancos. Interment will follow at Cedar Grove Cemetery. Reverends Joseph L. Gallegos C.R. and Salvador Cisneros C.R. will officiate. A visitation has been scheduled for Sunday afternoon from 3 to 5 p.m. at Ertel Memorial Chapel. A Rosary service will be held at 7 p.m. Sunday evening at St. Rita Catholic Church. The daughter of Jose Patricio and Marguerita (Archuleta) Velasquez, Lela was born on March 15, 1921 in Ensenada, N.M. She passed away on Tuesday, March 13, 2007 at the Valley Inn Nursing Home at the age of 85. Lela married Cesario Jose Martinez on October 3, 1938 at St. Rita Catholic Church. She was a devoted member of her church. Lela was active with the Mancos Senior Center from 1990 to 2004. She loved to travel and spend time working at the library. Lela enjoyed painting and time spent making arts and crafts. She also liked to fish and work in her flower garden. Surviving Lela are her children, Frances S. Maestas and husband, Rueben of Mancos, and Rick Martinez and wife, Diane of Bartlesville, Okla.; her siblings, Kelly Velasquez and wife, Elisa of Dolores, Margaret Martinez and husband, Tony also of Dolores, and Bertha Sena of Mancos; 13 grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren; two great-great-grandchildren; and her daughter-in-law, Dolores Martinez of Mancos. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Cesario Martinez; and her son, Ray Martinez in January of 2007.