Emma Anaya Lopez

Emma Anaya Lopez, a homemaker and longtime resident of Odessa, was 64 years young when Jesus called her home after a phenomenal battle with the cruel disease of cancer while at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was surrounded by her husband of 43 years and her three sons.

Emma was born on February 22, 1948 to Francisco and Guadalupe Anaya of Lake Arthur, New Mexico, now both deceased. Emma came from a large family consisting of fourteen sisters and three brothers. Emma attended and graduated from Lake Arthur High School where she was a cheerleader and school paper editor. In March of 1967, Emma met the love of her life, Joe Varela Lopez, while attending her sisters’ wedding rehearsal. Joe and Emma courted one another for one and one half years before being married at the Catholic Church in Lake Arthur. Emma gave birth to three sons in the years following: Joe Lopez, Jr., Peter Anthony Lopez and Noe Anaya Lopez.

Emma’s’ passion was to spread the good news of Jesus’ mercy and grace while living a life for her Savior. There was never a moment that she turned down where she was able to share in the good news of Jesus. She continued to live a life of example, all the way to the time Jesus took her home.

Emma was preceded in death by her parents and three sisters, Alicia and Gracie Jane Analla, and Celia Romero, and in-laws Pedro and Antonia Lopez. She is survived by: husband - Joe Varela Lopez, sons - Joe Jr., Peter Anthony Lopez and his wife, Christine, and Noe Anaya Lopez and his wife, Jennifer, five grandsons and two granddaughters, whom she considered ‘her babies,’ sister-in-law Febe Catano and her husband Daniel, sister-in-law Linda Lopez, three brothers, Daniel Anaya and wife Virgie, Ernest Anaya and wife Nery, Lionel Anaya, her sisters, Carlotta Wagner, Lilia Analla, Frances Cox, Carolyn and her husband Ernesto Martinez, Virgie Matta, Mary Ester Smith, Lena and her husband Wesley Dial, Bertha and her husband John Lujan, Nancy Garcia, Anita and her husband Joe Palomin, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Since 1979, Emma and Joe became family and attended the First United Pentecostal Church in Odessa, Texas under the leadership of Pastor, Dr. Terry Pugh. Viewing will take place at the Hubbard-Kelley Funeral Home on Thursday, May 17, 2012 between 6pm and 8pm. The funeral services will take place at 2pm on May 18, 2012 at the First United Pentecostal Church, located at the corner of 17th and Texas, with Dr. Pugh officiating. Final interment will be at Sunset Memorial.

Services entrusted to Hubbard-Kelly Funeral Home.