Olga C. De La Zerda

Olga De La Zerda went to be with our Lord on March 12, 2011. Olga’s childhood in Villa Frontera, the idyllic Mexican village where she was born, was forever changed when she lost her father at age seven. She began her lifelong journey in part time sales to help her widowed mother provide for four children. She sold pencils and candy at school and in the neighborhood and tithed ten percent to the Church. Her love of selling everything from Avon to ceramics continued all her life. She was president of the Violeta Social Club as a young lady until she met her love. Alfredo entered her life shortly after his return from the WWII European front. He asked her to marry him almost immediately and wrote in a letter, “When I first held you, I felt like I’d known you always!” Their destiny was to spend almost a half century together raising their family in San Antonio. They enjoyed music and dancing and were members of the Married Couples Social Club for many years. They volunteered together serving luncheons with the R.S.V.P. program. Olga was an avid craftswoman, a virtual Martha Stewart a la Mexicana. She made everything from plaster casts of seashells collected from annual trips to Corpus Christi to fancy ceramics, quilts, her own ball gowns and the best cooking and baking this side of the Rio Grande. She nurtured to a fault, spoiling her children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews and their children. God gave her a green thumb that revealed His goodness through her. Countless times, she’d pull an apparently dead, dried up plant and nurture it back to blooming health. She believed in the Living Word of the Lord and comforted with the wisdom that “Dios sabe lo que hace.” The Lord’s will be done. She was Graced away by the Holy Spirit after a lifetime of continued blessings from her Lord, Jesus Christ. Olga was preceded in death by her husband, Alfredo De La Zerda. She is survived by her children; Olga M. Gallego, Larry Gallego, Olivia De La Zerda Reyna and husband Rick, Nancy J. De La Zerda, Alfredo J. De La Zerda, Jr. and wife Blanca, Rebecca Fitzgerald and husband Richard,. Grandchildren; Alejandra Gallego, Ray Sanchez, Lorraine Fitzgerald, Jennifer Fitzgerald, Alfred Allen De La Zerda, III, Brian Alexander De La Zerda, numerous nieces, nephews and other family members. The De La Zerda family would like to extend their gratitude to Sylvia Munoz, Olga’s caretaker of four years. Also a special thanks to Brandy Davis, Enrique De Luna, and all the great staff at Chandler Assisted Living, where she was a happy resident for the last several years. Visitation will be on Monday, March 21, 2011 from 12:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. with a Rosary being recited at 7:00p.m. that same evening. A Funeral Mass will be held on Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 9:30 a.m. at St. Ann’s Catholic Church located at 210 St. Ann Street in San Antonio, Texas 78214 with interment to follow at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.