1925
Yolanda
2015
Yolanda Salazar
September 23, 1925 — November 15, 2015
Yolanda (“Mimi”) Moreno Salazar died peacefully on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015, at her home, surrounded by her children, her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. A rosary and prayer service is scheduled for 6 p.m. today at St. Mary’s Catholic Cathedral, 1200 S. Washington St., with Rt. Rev. Msgr. Harry Waldow, retired pastor, officiating, and the family will remain after the service for a visitation. The funeral Mass will be at 2 p.m. Thursday at St. Mary’s, with the Rev. Scott Raef, the rector at St. Mary’s, and Msgr. Waldow officiating. Services are by Schooler Funeral Home, 4100 S. Georgia St.
Mrs. Salazar was born Sept. 23, 1925, in San Antonio, where she was one of six children of Eleuterio and Olivia Moreno. She went to school there and worked in a laboratory testing the quality of cement made at a local plant. She attended a business college, where she met the young man who was to become her husband, Antonio Salazar Jr., who preceded her in death on Sept. 29, 2009. She supported him through his service in the U.S. Air Force during World War II, his college years at then-Texas A&I University in Kingsville, TX, his first career as a high school math teacher and coach and throughout his life. She and their children came to Amarillo in 1957 with him, where she became an active member of St, Mary’s Parish and of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Amarillo from the time the family arrived in the Panhandle until her battle with Alzheimer’s disease began to control her life and she could no longer actively serve the church and the community. The couple had seven children and she was a “stay-at-home” mother until she learned to drive at the age of about 50. That’s when she spread her wings and was on the go from sunrise until sunset, and she loved it.
Over the years, her activities included volunteering at St. Mary’s Academy, where all the Salazar children were enrolled; serving as a member of St. Cecilia’s Circle, the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women, the board of the Amarillo College Foundation, the Citizens’ Budget Committee for the United Way, the board of directors for the Pearl Longbine Cottage for Children (now the Catholic Charities of the Texas Panhandle’s Youth Shelter), and various other community organizations, including Los Barrios de Amarillo and the Amarillo chapter of the Mended Hearts organization. She spent countless hours volunteering at St. Anthony’s Hospital with Mended Hearts, comforting family members and advising them about the medical procedures their loved ones were experiencing when open heart surgery was just beginning as a standard medical tool. Above everything else, however, was her service to St. Mary’s church and school and being wherever and whenever her husband or her children were involved in their activities. They saw to it that their children were involved in athletics and other types of competition and were ever-present at ballgames of various sorts, academic competitions and social gatherings, where they could be spotted on the sidelines chaperoning school dances or behind the wheel, taking kids to basketball games all over the Panhandle.
The couple’s generosity included financial support for numbers of the seminarians training for the priesthood as well as mentoring them and hosting them at their home for impromptu dinners. They also “adopted” various young people who would move to Amarillo either to attend college at AC or West Texas State University. When someone looked lonely at church, they were more than likely to end up at the Salazar house for lunch or dinner and then become good friends of the family. She and her husband started a scholarship fund at AC for returning students, and both actively supported the school they loved.
Yolanda was among the group of women who helped Bishop Leroy Matthiesen bring a group of Capuchin nuns to start a monastery in a building that was his former home in East Amarillo. The cloistered order of nuns depends on contributions from the general public, and they spend their time in prayer. The Salazar’s helped financially support them for 34 years.
She was honored with numbers of awards and recognitions over the years of her civic and church work, but one of her favorites was serving as parade marshal for the Tri State Fair Parade with Eveline Rivers.
When grandchildren started appearing in their lives, they once again started the routine of going to school activities and supporting countless fundraisers at various public and private schools in Amarillo. They contributed to the support of the “grands” as they went to college and proudly attended graduations in Texas, Colorado and Arizona, where their grandchildren lived. They did the same for the great-grandchildren and there are boxes of photographs to prove it. “Mimi,” as most family members knew her, was an incredible cook, and she taught them all to make tortillas and other traditional Mexican foods. She proudly put on her apron and cooked at fundraisers at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church for many years, and had a great reputation for the dressing she cooked every year at the annual St. Mary’s Turkey Dinner. She taught everyone she loved to love nature and how to plant a beautiful garden, and she had one of the prettiest stands of bluebonnets in this area of the state every spring. As usual, she shared the bounty, and gave seeds from her plants to everyone who asked for them.
We will miss her.
She is survived by her seven children and their spouses: Jeannie and Norman Friddell, Vivian Salazar, and Patty Salazar and Helen Genitski, all of Amarillo; Diane and John McFall, of Pinetop, AZ; Rick and Jenni Salazar of Bedford, TX; and Norma Salazar and Mary Salazar, both of Austin, TX; her grandchildren and their spouses: Shelley and Phil Jones of Amarillo, Tony and Paise Friddell of Chattanooga, TN, Chris and Beth Ellis of Show Low, AZ, Tiffany and D.J. Hunt of Amarillo, Chad Ellis of Amarillo, Candie Runquist of Amarillo, Anthony Salazar of Dallas, TX and Caleb and Sara Allen of Austin, TX, Crystal Reynolds of Amarillo; and her eighteen great-grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to The Capuchin Monastery of the Blessed Sacrament at 4201 NE 18th Ave., Amarillo, TX 79107, or The Antonio and Yolanda Salazar Scholarship at Amarillo College.
Mrs. Salazar was born Sept. 23, 1925, in San Antonio, where she was one of six children of Eleuterio and Olivia Moreno. She went to school there and worked in a laboratory testing the quality of cement made at a local plant. She attended a business college, where she met the young man who was to become her husband, Antonio Salazar Jr., who preceded her in death on Sept. 29, 2009. She supported him through his service in the U.S. Air Force during World War II, his college years at then-Texas A&I University in Kingsville, TX, his first career as a high school math teacher and coach and throughout his life. She and their children came to Amarillo in 1957 with him, where she became an active member of St, Mary’s Parish and of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Amarillo from the time the family arrived in the Panhandle until her battle with Alzheimer’s disease began to control her life and she could no longer actively serve the church and the community. The couple had seven children and she was a “stay-at-home” mother until she learned to drive at the age of about 50. That’s when she spread her wings and was on the go from sunrise until sunset, and she loved it.
Over the years, her activities included volunteering at St. Mary’s Academy, where all the Salazar children were enrolled; serving as a member of St. Cecilia’s Circle, the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women, the board of the Amarillo College Foundation, the Citizens’ Budget Committee for the United Way, the board of directors for the Pearl Longbine Cottage for Children (now the Catholic Charities of the Texas Panhandle’s Youth Shelter), and various other community organizations, including Los Barrios de Amarillo and the Amarillo chapter of the Mended Hearts organization. She spent countless hours volunteering at St. Anthony’s Hospital with Mended Hearts, comforting family members and advising them about the medical procedures their loved ones were experiencing when open heart surgery was just beginning as a standard medical tool. Above everything else, however, was her service to St. Mary’s church and school and being wherever and whenever her husband or her children were involved in their activities. They saw to it that their children were involved in athletics and other types of competition and were ever-present at ballgames of various sorts, academic competitions and social gatherings, where they could be spotted on the sidelines chaperoning school dances or behind the wheel, taking kids to basketball games all over the Panhandle.
The couple’s generosity included financial support for numbers of the seminarians training for the priesthood as well as mentoring them and hosting them at their home for impromptu dinners. They also “adopted” various young people who would move to Amarillo either to attend college at AC or West Texas State University. When someone looked lonely at church, they were more than likely to end up at the Salazar house for lunch or dinner and then become good friends of the family. She and her husband started a scholarship fund at AC for returning students, and both actively supported the school they loved.
Yolanda was among the group of women who helped Bishop Leroy Matthiesen bring a group of Capuchin nuns to start a monastery in a building that was his former home in East Amarillo. The cloistered order of nuns depends on contributions from the general public, and they spend their time in prayer. The Salazar’s helped financially support them for 34 years.
She was honored with numbers of awards and recognitions over the years of her civic and church work, but one of her favorites was serving as parade marshal for the Tri State Fair Parade with Eveline Rivers.
When grandchildren started appearing in their lives, they once again started the routine of going to school activities and supporting countless fundraisers at various public and private schools in Amarillo. They contributed to the support of the “grands” as they went to college and proudly attended graduations in Texas, Colorado and Arizona, where their grandchildren lived. They did the same for the great-grandchildren and there are boxes of photographs to prove it. “Mimi,” as most family members knew her, was an incredible cook, and she taught them all to make tortillas and other traditional Mexican foods. She proudly put on her apron and cooked at fundraisers at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church for many years, and had a great reputation for the dressing she cooked every year at the annual St. Mary’s Turkey Dinner. She taught everyone she loved to love nature and how to plant a beautiful garden, and she had one of the prettiest stands of bluebonnets in this area of the state every spring. As usual, she shared the bounty, and gave seeds from her plants to everyone who asked for them.
We will miss her.
She is survived by her seven children and their spouses: Jeannie and Norman Friddell, Vivian Salazar, and Patty Salazar and Helen Genitski, all of Amarillo; Diane and John McFall, of Pinetop, AZ; Rick and Jenni Salazar of Bedford, TX; and Norma Salazar and Mary Salazar, both of Austin, TX; her grandchildren and their spouses: Shelley and Phil Jones of Amarillo, Tony and Paise Friddell of Chattanooga, TN, Chris and Beth Ellis of Show Low, AZ, Tiffany and D.J. Hunt of Amarillo, Chad Ellis of Amarillo, Candie Runquist of Amarillo, Anthony Salazar of Dallas, TX and Caleb and Sara Allen of Austin, TX, Crystal Reynolds of Amarillo; and her eighteen great-grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to The Capuchin Monastery of the Blessed Sacrament at 4201 NE 18th Ave., Amarillo, TX 79107, or The Antonio and Yolanda Salazar Scholarship at Amarillo College.
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