Obituaries

Laura Baldenegro, 84, a longtime Tombstone, Ariz., resident, died Nov. 24 in Tucson of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. Laura was born in Tombstone on April 29, 1916, to Ralph and Laura Maldonado. She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Angel; brothers, Joe and Ralph; and a granddaughter. Survivors include three sons, Richard of Sierra Vista, Ariz., Angel of Tombstone, and Ralph of Santa Clara, Calif.; two daughters, Barbara of Florence, Ore., and Martha of Anchorage, Alaska; 17 grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren. She was a retired career civil service employee of the U. S. Army at Fort Huachuca. Funeral Mass will be at 9 a.m. Friday, Dec. 1, at Sacred Heart Church in Tombstone, followed by interment at the Tombstone Cemetery.

In Memory of 

Socorro Swanney Sanchez

August 10, 1916 - January 26, 2008

Socorro "Cora" Swaney Sanchez was born on August 10, 1916, in Bisbee, Arizona to parents Charles Swaney and a very young Rosa Gonzalez.

Cora was raised by grandparents Angel and Lucia Baldenegro, along with their children Mary, Angel, Bertha and Dolores.  She loved to visit her mother Rosa and her eleven Chavez brothers and sisters.

Raised in Bisbee she had many jobs, including working in her mother's restaurant.  During this time she had a son Albert Amparan.  Soon after she married Francisco Sanchez with whom she had three children Elvira 'Vera" Eduardo "Eddie" and Rodolfo "Rudy."  She basically raised four children alone

while also working as many as four jobs at a time.  In 1961, she separated from husband Francisco.

In 1965, she came to Los Angeles to be with her children and grandchildren Cindy, Liz, Barbara, Christopher and Valerie.  She retired on disability, but stayed active as the manager of the senior citizen apartment complex she lived at.  At this time she also worked on her hobbies of baking and crocheting.  Being devout Catholic she also remained active within the church-she was an extremely religious woman.

Her later years found her living with her son Rudy and daughter in-law Yolanda where she enjoyed reading, sewing, TV and spending time with her grandchildren and especially her great-grandson Nicholas Sakowski.

By 1999, she had survived her husband and three children and beaten cancer no less than five times-an incredibly strong willed and loving individual.