Dorothy Mae Santos

Long time Alviso resident

Dorothy Mae Santos, 86, had last rites with family and friends surrounding her bedside, and passed from strokes and kidney failure in her home on January 13th, 2011.

She was born Dorothy Mae Veiga 12-19-24 into a traditional Portuguese family, and brought up on a pear orchard on North First Street until she graduated from Santa Clara High School. On graduation day, she eloped to Reno and was married to Tony P. Santos for over 61 years. Together with hard work and determination, and little finances, they bought property in Alviso that no one else wanted and started and developed the Santos Property Management business. Mom was a very strong determined woman with great generosity and kindness. She enjoyed music, played the piano, loved to read, enjoyed her cats and dog and planted beautiful flowers around her home. She was also a great cook and we would always welcome any reason to have her special prepared meals.

During several devastating floods, our mother was the one who woke us up in the middle of the night to gather our belongings and got us aboard my father's dump truck to escape to safety. During these times we lost almost all we had, but my mother and father would both paint, clean and do whatever it took to put our family back together.

Our mother always gave back to the community and gave generously to a variety of charities. She was the backbone of our family; kept us together and made sure we had all the opportunities she didn't. We are a very close family that traveled, celebrated all birthdays and spent all holidays together.

She is survived by her children, Richard P. Santos, Tony Allan Santos, Toni Lynn Robinson; grandchildren Jenifer Santos-Kendall, Tony P Santos, Christine Robinson, Amy Robinson-Eygabroat; greatgranddaughters Danielle Kendall and Lauren Kendall.

We were blessed to have her, and Dorothy Mae Santos will be missed dearly by her loved ones. In lieu of flowers, please send all donations to the Alviso Santa Program (for needy children) Non-Profit 501(c) Foundation, P.O. Box 1012, Alviso, CA 95002, in her name. Contact: 262-0879