Cecilia "Kinney" Salinas Garza

Cecilia “Kinney” Salinas Garza entered into eternal rest on Saturday, March 11, 2023 at the Alfredo Gonzalez Veterans Home in McAllen, Texas at the age of 90. She was born on June 16, 1932 to Cenovia and Cecilio Salinas in Falfurrias, Texas and was their youngest daughter. She attended Falfurrias High School, Texas A&I University and Pan American University.

During her almost 50 years of marriage to Servando “Buck” Garza, she was a Marine and HEB wife, stay at home mom, cashier, substitute teacher, but her favorite role besides being a grandma was as a volunteer.

For over 20 years, she was an active member of the Alice Spohn Hospital Auxiliary where she served as treasurer and president. She was also a member of the Catholic Daughters and active member of the VFW Women’s Auxiliary. On Wednesday’s, before the pandemic, you could catch her baking brownies to sell with her friends at the weekly bingo night. More often than not, she was a driver for her friends and they always had a good time. Kinney would host lunch parties for her friends and then afterwards they would play her favorite card game of Skip Bo. She was really good at that game and with her, you didn’t play to play; you played to win money.

When Kinney moved to Harlingen, Texas two years ago, she and her friends visited by phone and text messages. At 90 years old, she could text message on her iPhone and loved to use emojis. It took Kinney only the weekend at her senior assisted living community before she made friends. Within a month of living there, she was the community’s featured resident. She enjoyed all their events and usually when she signed up, all the other residents did too. Kinney loved painting, arts and crafts, bingo, and doing word search puzzles. Many of her friends got hooked on word search because she would give them one of her many books.

Kinney loved her family very much and enjoyed life, especially as a two time cancer survivor. Whether it was watching her grandson Blaise play the piano for her friends, having her granddaughter Shannon paint her fingernails red, playing card games with her grandson Reed, or with a smile calling Stephanie Reed’s girlfriend by the name of Jennifer or calling her daughter-in-law Judy, Judge Judy, because Kinney loved that show, Kinney received love from all.

Her son Buck Edward was her favorite and always played Vicente Fernandez songs for her. However, it was Kinney’s daughter who she would say to her doctors, “If you need to know anything, you need to ask my daughter, Wilma.” During Kinney’s last week on Earth, she spent plenty of time with many family members. She knew how much she was loved and peacefully went home.

Kinney was reunited in Heaven with her parents; husband, Buck; daughter, Sandra Ann Garza; in-laws, Celia and Leopoldo Garza; five sisters, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law and her pets.

Left to cherish her memories are her daughter, Wilma Jo Garza of McAllen; son, Buck Edward (Judy) Garza of Fort Worth, Texas; brother, Eracilio “EB’ (Mary) Salinas of Falfurrias, Texas; three grandchildren, Blaise Garza of Tasmania, Australia, Shannon Garza of San Diego, California and Reed Smetter of Edinburg, Texas and numerous extended family members.

Rosary will be held at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, March 16, 2023 at the Funeraria Del Angel Howard Williams in Falfurrias with Visitation beginning at 8:30 a.m. Funeral Mass will follow at 10:30 a.m. at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Falfurrias and services will conclude with Burial at the Sacred Heart Cemetery in Falfurrias.