Emma S. Martinez

Emma Martinez, beloved mother, grandmother, sister and aunt, died Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011, after a short bout with cancer. The lifelong resident of San Antonio’s West Side was 89. Born Emma Delfina Serna, she was the daughter of Mexican immigrants who arrived in South Central Texas in the late 1800s. She outlived all but one of her 10 siblings, who like her, were children of the Great Depression. Martinez went to school until the fifth grade at De Zavala Elementary School, when it was Public School No. 40 and was better known to area residents as “La 40.” She was still a child when she went to work cleaning houses to help put keep food on her family’s table. Her mother, Catarina Rios Serna, originally of Villa de Fuente, Coahuila, took in laundry and ironing; her father, Pablo Serna, did odd jobs and sold junk. Martinez’s five brothers all served in World War II. It is believed that she was married seven times, though she took the details of all her legal and common-law marriages to her grave. All who knew and loved her understood, however, that the love of her life was Lalo McHaney, whom she married in the 1940s. They enjoyed their ranchito in Kenedy but never had children. Fiercely independent, Martinez worked all her life in a variety of jobs. She tended bar, cleaned the homes of the rich and worked as a hotel room attendant. In the late 1950s and ‘60s, she helped run a bar on Guadalupe Street with her children’s father, Margarito Martinez, better known as Conejo. Martinez and two of her sisters, Blanquita Ayala and the late Angelina Serna, were known as “The Golden Girls” by relatives and friends. Inseparable in retirement, they shopped, ate out, did yard work and other tasks together. They also played important roles in helping raise Martinez’s granddaughter, Elenita, now a student at the University of Texas at San Antonio. “Emmita,” as many people called her, was known for her temper but also for her great compassion and over-the-top generosity. Not only did she work hard to provide for her children but did extra work to help nieces and nephews. School year after school year, she helped buy back-to-school clothes and school supplies. Her Christmas presents weren’t always the best wrapped but made wishes come true. After retiring, she helped care for grandchildren, applauding all their playacting, dancing and coloring, in and outside the lines. A superb cook, Martinez most loved making great big batches of tamales at Christmastime, and menudo and caldo on Saturday mornings. She could roll out tortillas without even looking and kept them coming off the comal. Her salsa was righteous. She was far from perfect but she was ours, and we will miss her. The family thanks her primary care physician Dr. Jesus Garcia, her oncologist Dr. Luis Rodriguez and the lovely nurses, chaplains and other caregivers on the fifth floor of the downtown Baptist Hospital.

Emma Martinez is survived by her daughter, Catherine Martinez; four grandchildren, Maria Elena Martinez, Bobby Martinez, Mark Garcia and Megan Lowe; son, Paul Martinez; sister, Blanca Ayala; nieces; Mary Blanch De Leon, Elaine Ayala, Deborah De Leon Holt and Sandra De Leon; nephews, Alfonso De Leon Jr., Richard Ayala, Alfonso De Leon III, Richard De Leon, Roger “Roo” Ayala and Albert and Michael Ayala; and former daughters-in-law, Virginia Alvarado and Verna Blackwell Hilario, and her husband Benny.

Viewing begins at 1 p.m. Monday, Nov. 21, at Trevino Funeral Home, 226 Cupples Road, followed by a rosary at 7 p.m. Funeral Mass is at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 22, at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, 1321 El Paso St., followed by interment at San Fernando Cemetery No. 2.