Beloved Mary Magdalene Mintz passed
away on June 9, 2011 at Lompoc Valley Medical Center. Born in Gomez Palacio,
Mexico to Rosa Escobedo and Valeriano
de la Torre on July 22, 1920, she came to
the US in 1925. Mary was a member of
Saint Monicas High School's first
graduating class in 1939 and was one of
the first Latinas to graduate from
Woodbury Business College. She met her
devoted husband, David Mintz, in an
elevator in the HW Hellman building in
downtown Los Angeles. Together they
raised six children, initially living in California, followed by
proving a homesite in Alaska and later settling in Lompoc in 1958.
With her encouragement, her six children obtained college
degrees and pursued professions in film, dentistry, engineering, medicine, architecture, and environmental science.

Mary loved sparking a child's imagination and passion for
reading. She worked as a Bilingual Educational Aide and
volunteered as a Library Aide at the Hapgood and Fillmore
schools. Focused on helping families in need, Mary was an active
volunteer, working with Catholic Charities, Christmas Cheer,
Toys for Tots, Food Pantry and Habitat for Humanity. She
founded the Lompoc Ballet Folklorica, a performance dance group
for middle school children and participated in registration for the
1986 Immigration Amnesty.

Mary loved her family and community. She was a beautiful
woman, loving, gentle and serene. She loved without limits,
touching the hearts of the many people she met.
Mary is preceded in death by her brothers Antonio, Carlos,
Tranquelino, Ysidro, Refugio, Luis Elias and Miguel Gonzalez and
dear friends Amparo Lynch and Toshi Inouye.

She is survived by her husband David; children David, Michael,
Jake, Candy, Robert and John; daughters-in-law Vicky, Lynn,
Laurie and Annalee; grandchildren Rachel, Mathew, Adam, Josh,
Jeff, Greg and Joaquin; great-grandchildren Alex, Ethan, Zach,
Emma and David; sisters Guadalupe Hernandez and Rose Virginia
Gonzalez; brother Thomas Gonzalez; and many nieces and
nephews.

Funeral services will be held Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 1:00 pm
at Starbuck Lind Mortuary in Lompoc with visitation from 10:00
am to 1:00 pm. Internment will be at Lompoc Evergreen Cemetery. A reception will follow at the Veterans Memorial
Building.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Mary Mintz
Memorial Scholarship Fund c/o The Allan Hancock College Foundation
(AHC Foundation), PO Box 5170, Santa Maria, California 93456