Maria Delia Tidwell, age 86, has passed on November 6th, 2026, in Edmond, Oklahoma. She was born April 24, 1940 in Mazatlan, Mexico, to the late Maximino Espinoza Berber and Isabel Velazquez Campos. She was a strong, fierce, and loving mother, grandmother, and friend. A lover of all animals and a savant with plants. She will be missed by everyone whose lives she has touched.
Maria was never a stranger to working hard in her life, she worked multiple jobs as a single mom to keep her family safe and comfortable. Maria found stable work for 30 years at Western Electric/AT&T/Lucent, but she really flourished in her retirement years. Sun up to sun down she could be found working in her 2 acre garden. Tending to many different flowers, trees, shrubs, and her favorite, her "sock-it-to-me" roses (knock out roses). She was aptly nicknamed 'plant jesus' because there wasn't a plant she couldn't revive. She was kept company in her garden by her loyal pets over the years, the humming birds she adored and spoiled, and her roommate and friend the late James Cotton. She was fiercely independent but never alone, she was always surrounded by her family, friends, neighbors, and local members of her church.
When she wasn't in her garden she could be found in a local thrift store with her granddaughter, a favorite past time for both of them. She had a passion for brightly colored clothes and Native American chachkies.
A jack of all trades she could garden, upholster furniture, sew, oil paint, bake and cook. She was an artist.
Maria will be forever missed by her surviving loved ones, including her daughter Lisa Brown and husband Wayne of Piedmont, Oklahoma, son August Spillers of Suffolk, Virginia. She is also survived by her grandchildren Ryan Spillers and wife Esin of Rancho Palos Verdes, California, Marisa Brown and partner Jennifer Mayes of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Rhianna Dick of Jones, Oklahoma, Rachel Olson and husband Zach of Lincoln, Nebraska. Her brothers, Francisco Espinoza Velazquez and Maximino Espinoza Velazquez; 5 great grand-kids, 2 great-great grandkids, and numerous nieces and nephews.
Maria was preceded in death by her father Maximo Espinoza Berber, her mother Isabel Velazquez Campos, her sisters Sonia Velazquez, and Stell Farfan, and her grandson Christian Chancey.
