Marie Lina Madrid

She was born in Thompson (Gonzales County), Texas but as a young child, moved with her parents, Teodoro (“Ted”) and Maria de la Luz Villarreal Juarez, from Texas to become proud residents of Gill, Colorado where she grew-up with her big brother, Roger, her younger sister, Dolia Leyda, and younger brother, Jake.

As a child, Lina spent many hard days working with her family as farm laborers, and for this reason, she absolutely hated sunflowers.

Then again, she absolutely loved her cheeseburgers (that had to be cooked well-done or she’d dismissively push them aside), potato chips and ice-cold Cokes (not the diet, but the real stuff).

At the age of 21 years old, Lina married Damian “Joe” Madrid on September 5, 1954.

Less than 2 years later, our small town farm girl traveled with her 6 month old daughter, Sarah, to Frankfurt, Germany to join Joe where he was stationed in the Army.

Joe remained in the military, specializing in intelligence, for 20 years (and with his midstream transferring to the Air Force) until retiring in February 1, 1970.

Lina loved, and was extremely proud of her military life. It afforded her the opportunity to raise her children, Sarah, Rudy Joe and Evelyn Joy, in Germany, Fort Huachuca (Arizona), Asmara Eritrea (Africa), a second stint at Fort Huachuca, Offutt Air Force Base (Nebraska) and Izmir, Turkey.

The family took advantage of visiting several foreign countries with Greece being Lina’s favorite.

Upon Joe retiring from the Air Force, Lina and her family moved to Greeley, Colorado.

Lina worked a decade plus as a school cook at Franklin Middle School where she made fast friends with her co-workers, and she also had fond memories of cleaning what became the Chase Tower in downtown Greeley.

Joe passed away on January 30, 2005, and for almost 20 years, Lina lived a full life as a widow. This included her taking trips to San Antonio, San Diego, Sedona, Arizona, Zions National Park in Utah, the East Coast to catch the Fall foliage, a return trip to Greece, and Ireland.

She was predeceased by both her parents, her brother, Roger, her husband, Joe, her daughter, Evelyn, and her sister, Dolia.

She is survived by her brother, Jake, daughter, Sarah, son, Rudy, grandsons, Justin, Ryan and Nicholas, granddaughter, Patty, and great grandchildren, Evelyn, Olivia and Logan.

Lina was a friend and de-facto grandmother to several of us. She gave much of herself to many.

Lina often finished conversations by saying: "God has been so good to me."

A celebration of life will be held on Thursday, December 19, 2024 at 1:00 p.m. at Stoddard Funeral Home, with burial at Sunset Memorial Gardens at 2:00 p.m.