Angel "Jimmy" S. Torres

Angel Santiago Torres was born in Houston on August 2, 1930, the oldest of three children to Felicitas and Francisco Torres. When he was 17, he joined the U.S. Army and was stationed in Hawaii.

On July 1, 1951, at a dance, he met a young woman named Anna when she and her friends needed a ride home. A mutual friend asked Angel if he’d give them a lift, and he only agreed if Anna would sit in the front seat with him. It was a bold request, but she had to get home and he was good- looking, so she said yes. Three days later, on July 4th, they went to Galveston on their first date. It turned out, Anna would find, he was also a really good dancer, and Anna loved to dance. Their shared love of dancing and the fact that he was so good at it was one of the reasons she married him six months later.

Angel and Anna went on to have two children, a boy and a girl, were the foster parents of more than 50 others, and made their home for most of their years together in the Oak Forest neighborhood of Houston.

Angel was never very talkative. His children remember him as the old-fashioned, silent type. His daughter’s friends always said she had the sweetest dad. He didn’t say “I love you” very often to his wife and children, but he lived his life showing it. He worked long and hard, holidays and overtime, 14- to -16 hour days, at his 30-year job in the bakery department at Kroger’s to make sure his family had all of their needs taken care of. He was always quietly proud that he could provide for his family.

He was a generous man. When his kids were teenagers and young adults, he’d often “Are you OK? Do you need money?” And he’d slip them some. But always with the whisper, “Don’t tell your mom.” Over the years, that line would make his kids laugh. If you walked into his house and liked something in particular, he wouldn’t hesitate to say, “Take it.” And when his fun-loving, motorcycle-riding son got into scrapes in his rowdier years, he could always count on his father to bet there. Always.

But Angel didn’t just love his family. He loved everyone. He never met a person he didn’t like. Everyone was his friend, and his loving nature, is his family believes, his legacy.

He also loved cars, and collected many of them, keeping the driveway perpetually full. Cleaning them to a spit shine was one of his life’s hobbies. In his later years, he particularly loved a Suburban because he could put the middle seat down and fit all of his five grandchildren.

He had a passion for art, took art classes, and left his family a small treasure of watercolor paintings and pencil drawings. He especially loved Native American and Indian art. His family was part Indian, and that ancestry drew him to it.

He was a good neighbor, the kind of man who’d lend a hand in small and consistent ways. It was never too much bother to take in a neighbors trash can, if it couldn’t be done otherwise.

In the end, those same neighbors who’d benefitted from his generously for years showed the same caring for him and his wife in the final days.

It was a wonderful life. Everything that had meaning to him, he had. At the end, his wife, son, and daughter are extremely grateful to the family, friends, and neighbors who made the journey so much easier. Special thanks to the staff and volunteers of AseraCare Hospice, Interfaith Care Partners and Gathering Place – and to a caring young man, Marcus Cortes, who sat with Angel while his wife ran errands.

He is preceded in death by his mother and father, Felicitas and Francisco Torres; his in-laws Juanicita and Juan Ulloa; his sister Estefana Mares; and his brother-in-laws Miguel Ulloa and Jesse Garza.

He is survived by his wife and dance partner of 62 years, Anna Torres; his sister Janie Torres; his son, James Torres; his daughter Irma Lancaster; grandchildren James Torres Jr. Natalie Torres, Torry Davison, Dustin Tillman and Paige Tillman, as well as great-grandchildren Leah Mendoza and Lex Mendoza.