Lilia Aguirre Rodriguez

Our loving mother, Lilia A. Rodriguez, passed away in Grand Junction, CO, at The Commons of Hilltop, January 11, 2024, at the age of 90. Rosary service will be held at 6:00pm at Callahan-Edfast Mortuary on Friday, March 15. A funeral Mass will be held on Saturday, March 16, at 10:00am in St. Joseph’s Church, followed by a reception/luncheon at the church parish hall, then the burial service in Calvary Cemetery.

Mom was a lifelong resident of Grand Junction, raised by her loving adoptive parents, Adela and Simon Aguirre. On September 4, 1954, she married Korean War veteran Michael Rodriguez at St. Joseph’s Church in Grand Junction, Colorado. Together they raised seven children: Andy Rodriguez (Lila), Mary Lou Wetherstein (Paul), Teresa Rodriguez (John Privette), Gerry Rodriguez of Fort Collins, CO, Susan Bush (John), Bunni Valus (Richard) of La Jolla, CA, and Tom Rodriguez (deceased). Other survivors include 10 grandchildren: Natalie Lucero (Adam) of Highlands Ranch, CO, Mallory Rodriguez (Gino Gallegos), Regina Bilbrey (Chris) of Durango, CO, Alicia Harris (Kevin) of Gillette, WY, Aaron Rodriguez of Fort Collins, CO, Marina Rodriguez of Washington, DC, Jessica Czapla (Greg) of Chicago, IL, Bridgett Means (Colin) of Colorado Springs, CO, Nikki Rodriguez (Henry Weincek) of Los Angeles, CA, Madeleine Osborne of Manakin Sabot, VA, and 11 great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Michael, and her youngest son, Tom.

In 1956, Lilia, family, and friends established the Grand Junction Latin Anglo Alliance (LAA), to promote Latino culture and raise scholarship funds for high school graduates. She was a charter member, served as secretary for over a decade, and continued to be an active member well into her seventies. She was an influential Latino community organizer, passionately promoting LAA's annual Cinco de Mayo Fiesta to raise scholarship funds. Other volunteer work included years of working at St. Joseph's parish office where she translated the church bulletin into Spanish. In addition, she spent countless hours helping individuals and families file for amnesty under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 by interpreting the multi-page form for the Spanish speaking community of Grand Junction/Mesa County. She was fiercely proud of her Mexican heritage & culture, which was reflected in her volunteer and work life. In recognition of her cultural and philanthropic endeavors, Lilia is listed in Who’s Who among Latin Americans in Colorado.

Mother graduated from Grand Junction High School and Parks Business College, Denver, Colorado. Early in her career she worked for a number of government agencies, including local, state, and federal. She was a court stenographer and an interpreter for the courts of Grand Junction, executive secretary for the Colorado regional attorney general’s office of Grand Junction, secretary for the Grand Mesa Youth Service Center, and secretary for the Atomic Energy Commission (now known as the Department of Energy) in Grand Junction, for which she was named a national Federal Employee of the Year in 1964. In 1989, artist Barbara Jo Revelle installed a two block long mosaic mural, A Colorado Panorama: A Peoples History, on the southeast side of the Denver Convention Center. This project celebrates our mother and 167 other women and men. Their faces appear on the mural because of their impact and contribution to Colorado history, many of who would normally not ever make it into the history books.

We will all miss her dearly, she taught us to have compassion for others and to value family and our heritage. She gave us the gift of cooking her Mexican cuisine - collectively we could write a cookbook. She loved her Broncos and Rockies and, along with dad, they would occasionally make the trek over the mountains to watch them play.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to St. Joseph’s Church or the Latin Anglo Alliance.