Richard Torres

Richard was born Ricardo Torres on June 29, 1946, in Brownsville, Texas, to Simon and Eleanor Torres. He is predeceased by his parents and by his brothers, Andres Torres, Antonio Torres, Wally DeLeon, Ramon Torres and sisters Rebecca Gonzalaz, and Maria Weatherford.

Survivors include: Sister Andrea Ramirez and brother Jesse (Darlene) Torres. His children: Michelle (Steve) Carter, Richard (Sierra) Torres, and Lisa Torres. Seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

He is also survived by his bonus family: Lucy Payne, his companion and friend, and her three children and seven grandchildren.

Richard was born in Texas and moved to Turlock, California as a teenager. He attended Turlock High School and graduated in 1966. He was in the National Guard for five years after signing up at age 17. He received an honorable discharge. Richard moved to Modesto around 1972 where he lived the rest of his life. Richard retired from PG&E after working for 40 years as a gas service representative. He knew Modesto and the surrounding area so well from working at PG&E if you asked where a street was he could tell you. He always said he had the memory of an elephant.

If you knew Richard you knew he had a great sense of humor and loved to talk. He was also very generous and enjoyed helping people. We could always count on him to show up and help when we had a project whether it was putting up a fence or replacing a roof. His humor was contagious and he made us laugh a lot. He was a good scrabble player and was hard to beat. One memory stands out of us sitting around a scrabble board on New Year's Eve and laughing throughout the whole game. London's Fish & Chips and Popeye's were some of his favorite places to eat and we have many memories of visiting the original London's Fish & Chips on McHenry Ave with him when we were kids.

Richard also loved movies and music. We grew up listening to Neil Diamond and got our love of music from him. Movies were a staple in his life and we knew he always had the latest DVD release and spent many a late Friday or Saturday night at his house watching movies.

Our Pop will be dearly missed.

Funeral services will be held on August 22, 2024, at 10:30 a.m. at Lakewood Memorial Park (Heritage Chapel) 900 Santa Fe Ave, Hughson, CA. Graveside to follow.