Mildred Moretti

Mildred Moretti was in her mid-50s when she found her calling. The longtime San Antonio resident who died November 30, at age 96, had found satisfaction as a wife and mother and as a woman drawn to helping people in need, but it was when she started waiting on customers at her son’s jewelry store that she blossomed.

“My mom could sell,” Mike Moretti said. “And she could sell because people trusted her. She would take all the time needed to find out what the customer was looking for and then show them what might work best for them. She wasn’t interested in selling the most expensive item; she just wanted to sell the item that was right for the customer, or the person they were giving it to. That kept her customers coming back. She served some clients for over 40 years.”

The charming woman who was a natural behind the jewelry counter also had a knack for numbers. She checked all sales invoices and commissions, scheduled all the store’s repairs and kept track of the repairs via computer. She may have been a nonagenarian, but the computer didn’t intimidate her.

She was born Mildred Katherine Lindley on Feb. 9, 1924, in Ages, Ky., a tiny coal-mining town in the hills of Harlan County. Like many Americans of that era, the family moved frequently as the Great Depression tightened its grip on the nation, so Mildred spent her early years in Oklahoma and California before settling in San Antonio when she was a teenager. She was thrilled to leave Oklahoma and happy to be in Texas, she recalled, in part because of a youthful encounter in the Sooner State with a large snake lurking in a storm cellar as a tornado approached. San Antonio felt safe after that experience, even though she never overcame her fear of tornadoes – or snakes.

In the Alamo City, she accepted a blind date with a young San Antonian named Johnnie Moretti, who treated her to a movie at the Palace Theater in downtown San Antonio. She didn’t remember what they saw on the silver screen that night, but she and Johnnie both agreed that when they saw each other, it was love at first sight. Shortly after they married in 1941, Johnnie joined the Merchant Marines, surviving typhoons and Japanese torpedoes as chief electrician on a tanker. He came back home to Mildred unscathed, and the couple spent the rest of their lives together in San Antonio.

For the first three decades of their marriage, family was the focus of Mildred’s life – husband Johnnie, daughter Carol and son Michael. A superb cook, she learned from her husband – who perhaps relied on old Moretti recipes -- how to prepare many Italian dishes worthy of the old country, among numerous other culinary specialties. Also unforgettable were her crème puffs for dessert and cakes that were the highlight of every birthday party. A 1958 feature article in the San Antonio Express described each cake as “a confectioner’s work of art.”

Shortly after the birth of daughter Carol, Johnnie was driving to work on a Saturday morning when he was hit head-on by a drunk driver. The driver had no insurance, and the Morettis had no income during the weeks and months Johnnie spent in the hospital and then at home recuperating from his painful injuries. Somehow, the young wife and new mother managed the household, paid the bills and looked after her infant daughter and her husband until he could get back to work.

Helping others was a gift that seemed to come naturally to her. Busy with her own life, and busy taking care of her family, she was often called upon to offer care and assistance when a friend or relative needed her by their side. Gentle, understanding and honest with those whose life was ending, she brought peace and comfort to the sick and dying, thereby making their passing easier. She was always there for those that needed her.

In 1978, Mildred’s children were grown and on their own, and she entered what her son describes as “one of the happiest chapters of her life.” Her son Mike had just opened his new jewelry store, Moretti’s Fine Jewelry, in Cambridge Place in Alamo Heights. (The store later moved to North Star Mall and then in 2000 to its current location at 14230 San Pedro).

Mildred went to work for Mike, planning originally to spend maybe a couple of days a week in the store, helping out until the business got established. Soon Moretti’s Fine Jewelry was thriving, and because she loved it, she was working six days a week. Work became even more important after she lost Johnnie in 1985. The woman who thought she would spend a couple of days a week at the store never missed a day for 42 years.

She was outgoing, she was witty, and she liked people. She made the buying experience fun, Mike said. “When she told a client something looked great, they knew she knew what she was talking about, because of her great sense of fashion and style,” he added.

Daughter Carol, who joined the company in 1997, was her next-door neighbor. In 2010, when the battery on Mildred’s car died, and Mike kept “forgetting” to replace it – thus taking her car keys in the most painless way possible -- she began commuting to and from work with Carol. Although, not thrilled with no longer being able to drive, after all, she was only 86, she was thankful for the extra bit of time she was able to spend with her daughter with each day’s commute.

She always took care of herself, making sure to eat sensibly and taking walks in the evenings after work. Her strolls took her by a nearby golf club, and she loved collecting stray balls she came across. Mike warned her that she should leave them where they lay because they might still be in play. She ignored him. For her 90th birthday, he bought her a treadmill – not to keep her safe from passing traffic, he told her, laughing, but to protect her from irate golfers.

In March of this year, the Corona virus pandemic forced Moretti’s to close temporarily. Mildred couldn’t wait for the shutdown to end; at 96, she longed to be back at work. She missed her regular clients. She missed working with her son and daughter and with longtime employees, many of whom she had mentored through the years.

She did return, briefly, but when the Covid numbers started to rise again, Mike asked both his mother and his sister to stay home until either the Covid numbers declined, or a vaccine became available. Carol kept her mother company and cared for her at home, but a vaccine that might have allowed her to return to work failed to arrive soon enough. On November 30, Mildred Katherine Lindley Moretti died of a heart ailment, at home, surrounded by her loving family, with the light of a full moon shining upon her.

She was preceded in death by her husband of 44 years, Johnnie Moretti; her parents, Clinton and Ruby Lindley; her sisters Aline Young, Dottie Arnold and Erma Hawkins; and her brother David Lindley.

Survivors include her daughter, Carol Randol of San Antonio; her son Mike Moretti and his wife Jill, also of San Antonio; grandchildren April (Randol) Graupner and Jil (Randol) Richter and her husband Jay; three great-grandchildren, Alexandra Graupner, Michael Graupner and James Richter (who will miss their “Dra-Draw); and a sister, Diane Foster.

Carol took care of her mother for the final few months of her life, and for that Mike will be forever grateful. Both Mike and Carol also are grateful for the kindness and concern shown their mother by her caregiver, Mamie Bocanegra. Her gentle ways and her understanding were reminiscent of their caregiving mother, who also brought peace and comfort to many people in their dying days.

“We are sure,” Mike said, “they, and many others, were waiting for her with open arms when she arrived at the gates of heaven.”

FUNERAL MASS

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2020

12:00 P.M.

ST. PIUS X CATHOLIC CHURCH

Interment will follow in Holy Cross Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

for those who were unable to attend in person, the service was recorded.