Maria Elsa Perez

She was born in Beeville, Texas, and grew up in Houston. She raised her family in the Bayou City, where her son, Michael Ray Perez, daughter-in-law, Cindy Pierce-Perez, and grandsons, Aaron and Matthew Pierce-Perez currently reside.

After her retirement from Stewart & Stevenson in Houston, Texas, in 2003, she lived with her daughter, Domino Renee Perez, son-in-law, James H. Cox, and grandson, Ewan James Cox in Southwest Austin.

Maria was an active member of Conley-Guerrero Senior Activity Center and is its reigning queen, an official title she earned through community service. She was an avid day tripper with the South Austin Senior Activity Center and exercised regularly at Well-Med. Maria attended mass at St. Ignatius Martyr Catholic Church and was a congregant of the San José Catholic Church, where she served as an initiated Guadalupana.

She had an enviable social life, traveling to hear live music, visit family and friends, or hit up the slot machines at one of her many favorite casinos. Most of all, she loved to dance, whether polka, cumbia, boot scoot, huapango, two step, or the cha-cha slide, and was a member of the Golden Ace R&B Line Dancers. She is single-handedly responsible for teaching her children, grandchildren, many of her nieces, nephews, friends, and more than one ex-novio how to dance. Most recently, she joined a senior percussion and despite her rheumatoid arthritis learned to lay down some serious rhythms.

Maria is preceded in death by her beloved uncle and aunt, Raul and Ofelia Ortiz, and is survived by her brothers Nicolas Ortiz and Feliciano Ortiz.

Her daughter and son wish to thank all of her friends for the love they have shown, now and over the years, as well as the many doctors, nurses, and other medical staff at Seton Main Hospital for the care and compassion they provided for their Mother.

A Celebration of Maria’s Life will be at 1:00 P.M., Wednesday, November 8, 2017, in the Chapel of Cook-Walden/Forest Oaks Funeral Home.