Mary Ellen Terronez

Mary Ellen Garcia Burks Terronez was born on Sunday, September 16, 1934, to Andrew Garcia of Texas and Mercy Castaneda of California. She attended Pasadena High School and Pasadena College.

Mary Ellen was a jack-of-all-trades who held several jobs throughout her life, including a maid, nanny, seamstress, car washer, driver, tutor, barmaid, and furniture store manager. She had a passion for teaching and loved molding the minds of young people, often returning to it no matter where she traveled—from California to Alaska to Utah.

Above all, she cherished her family. Growing up, she loved making tortillas with her mother, Mercy, and riding in the truck down Brooklyn Avenue with her father, Andrew, and her siblings, Edmund and Carmelita. One of her favorite memories with her children was watching her first husband, Sammie Lee Burks (m. 1955), play baseball at the park. Later in life, she enjoyed making tamales with her grandchildren. She was especially fond of a family semi-reunion in 2014, though she missed her girls, Caroline and Lita.

She loved to sew, crochet, cross-stitch, do word puzzles, and read. She spent time making blankets for all her grandchildren and most of her great-grandchildren so they would always have a little piece of her. In 1985, she married Ralph Terronez. To express her love, she took on the responsibility to take care of several of her grandchildren as well as gave them nicknames in Spanish.

After the death of her second husband, Ralph, she began traveling. She drove to Alaska to live with her granddaughter Cherron and her family. Later, she moved in with her granddaughter Tianay to help care for her great-granddaughter, SyJanae, while Tianay was in the military. Mary Ellen was a force to be reckoned with and made everyone she met feel like family. She spent her final days being cared for by her daughter Cynthia. Her daughter Kris, son Sonny and many of her family was able to travel to tell her bye before her transition.

Mary Ellen was preceded in death by her father, Andrew Garcia; her mother, Mercedes Castaneda; her brother, Edmund Garcia; her first husband, Sammie Lee Burks Sr.; her second husband, Ralph Terronez; her daughters, Caroline Marie Burks and Mary Carmelita Burks-Grooms (Oscar); and three grandsons, Steven Lamar Colvin, Arlee Donald Atkins III, and Edward Stanley Atkins.

She is survived by her sister, Mary Carmelita Garcia of Sierra Madre; her sister-in-law, Grace Garcia (Edmund) of Texas; her daughter, Jessie (Kris) Johnson of Hemet, California; her daughter, Cynthia Burks of Quartz Hill, California; her son, Sammie Lee Burks Jr. (Marie) of Hesperia, California; and her daughter, Cheron L. Evans (James, deceased 2019) of Memphis, Tennessee. She also leaves behind 24 grandchildren, over 85 great-grandchildren, over 36 great-great-grandchildren, a niece, a nephew, a great-nephew, and cousins.