A lifelong Brownsville resident, Paula was a homemaker who enjoyed arts and crafts, gardening, listening to her police scanner, watching her novelas, reading multiple newspapers daily and caring for her various pets — but what she enjoyed most was going above-and-beyond taking care of her family.
Paula was a migrant farmworker in the 1970s and traveled yearly to Ohio, with her family in tow, to harvest tomatoes and cucumbers, work that only her youngest children — Tomas and Esmeralda — appreciated, as they were able to eat tomatoes on a blanket as their older siblings worked the fields.
After finally settling at her long-time Southmost residence, Paula and her husband of 53 years — Tomas Reyes Garza Jr. — raised five children.
Paula had a “colorful” vocabulary and was not one to mince words. She had an incredible sense of humor and often spent afternoons laughing and chismeando with various neighbors from her fenceline.
Having grown up in a different time, Paula was filled with outrageous stories she enjoyed telling; from outsmarting coyotes, to hitchhiking to Mexico to go to a party, to shooting at wild pigs threatening her garden.
Paula will be deeply missed by everyone that knew her.
Paula is survived by her daughters, Yolanda Zamarripa; Esmeralda Rendon (Eduardo); sons, Hector Zamarripa (Janie); Alfredo and Tomas Garza; grandchildren, Patrick, Jonathan, Samantha, Sabrina, Eduardo, Hector Omar, Leo Samuel, Laura, Shantia, Shancy, Freddy, Joshua and numerous great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews, as well as extended family throughout the United States and Mexico.
Paula was preceded in death by her husband Tomas Reyes Garza Jr. and all of her siblings; Amado, Salvador, Carlos, Martin and Celia Galvan and Viola Cervantes.
Visitation will be held from 1 p.m. - 9 p.m. at Funeraria Del Angel Buena Vista on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022, with a rosary at 7 p.m.
Visitation until 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022, with interment to follow at Buena Vista Burial Park.
Written by beloved grandson Patrick Tamayo III.
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.funerariadelangelbuenavista.com for the Garza family.
