Fermina Hernandez Shoop, age 87, of Amarillo, Texas passed away on Sunday, December 10, 2023. Funeral mass will be held at 11am, Friday, December 15, 2023 at St. Hyacinth Catholic Church in Amarillo, Texas. The family will receive friends for a visitation from 4-6pm, with a Rosary following from 6-7pm on Thursday, December 14, 2023 at Memorial Park Funeral Home.
Fermina Hernandez Shoop was born in San Luis, San Pedro Guerrero, Mexico on April 8, 1936 to Juan Hernandez, a humble builder and to Justina Ramirez, who fought in the Mexican revolution. She is the youngest of four girls. She was vivacious, family oriented, and a strong faithful catholic woman. She worked alongside her father in the family agriculture farm and coconut plantation. She also sold homemade dishes to help her parents supplement family income. In school, she participated in track events winning most of her races due to her competitive nature. Elementary was her highest schooling; albeit, her accomplishments were beyond book education.
She later lived in Acapulco with her five children as a single mother, working multiple jobs – her two eldest helped with the siblings and work odd jobs to help their family. She lost her father, enabling her to help her mother while living in Acapulco. Fermina first worked in hotels later becoming a chef at the Acapulco Yacht club. Her and family immigrated to the US in 1968, living north of Boys Ranch. She traveled around the world from Acapulco in their schooner, sailing through the Panama Canal, the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, to upstate New York, and then to Europe.
With love and fervor for culinary arts, and an exemplary work ethic, she worked at St. Mary’s School and home health. She also worked alongside her grandson in his family business at the Amarillo Police Department Cafe – she is infamously known as ‘Grandma.’ She also volunteered with Meals on Wheels and the Senior Citizens center. Most significantly, she served the Lord as a Guadalupana and many church activities, earning Woman of the Year.
Fermina will be remembered as a lively and loving human being with much courage, tenacity, perseverance, and speaking perfect Spanglish. She would never let you go hungry. She loved bingo, Mexican loteria, and her Dallas Cowboys which she passed on to her family.
To her family, she is mami, momma, ‘La Grandmother,’ chenchita, and like no other. Thanks to her for all her hard work and love.
She is preceded in death by her parents, her late husband Sherman, her daughters Leticia and Margarita, her sisters Julia, Jesusita, and Ines, and her grandson Kynan Rogers.
