Provie M. Benedicto

Providencia Magdelena (Torres Benitez) Benedicto was born in San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico to Inocencia (Benitez) and Juan E. Torres on June 9, 1924. Our beautiful mother passed away in Yakima on August 29, 2015, at the age of 91, after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.

She, along with her brothers and sisters, enjoyed a tropical and loving childhood in Puerto Rico. Then, during World War II her older sister, Joaquina (Jackie) living in Brooklyn, New York, sent for Provie to come and live with her while Jackie’s husband, Mattias, was serving in the U.S. Navy. One life-changing day, Jackie introduced her brother-in-law, Sotero (Steve) Benedicto to Provie. A short time later, on January 27, 1945, they were married. They had been married for forty-seven years when Steve passed away on her birthday, June 9, 1992.

Following their wedding, Steve brought his bride to his rural Wapato farm where she worked side by side with him raising vegetables and grapes. She became the proud mother of three sons: Robert, Louie and Edwin.

She was a charter member of the Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Wapato Filipino Community Hall. The family enjoyed many memorable times there throughout the years. For a time she studied at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital School of Nursing. She had a lovely voice and as a young mother at Christmastime performed on a local radio station singing Christmas carols. For two years in the 1950s she traveled to New York with Louie to help care for her ailing mother, returning to the farm during the summer to help with the harvest. When all her boys were school age, she was employed at Cal-Pak in Toppenish later moving to the Del Monte can plant where she worked until her retirement. She was a long-standing member of Wapato’s St. Peter Claver Catholic Church.

She enjoyed traveling to see her extended family in New York, Chicago and Puerto Rico. She lived in Scottsdale for a few years to be near Ed and his family then moved to Yakima. Home and family were the center of her life.

Provie is survived by her sons and their wives Robert and Aleta of Tacoma; Lou and Kay of Yakima; Ed and Danette of Scottsdale, AZ; grandchildren Anita Thew, Gina Simbajon, Ed, Andrea and Amanda Benedicto, great-granddaughters Grace and Kate Simbajon and numerous cousins, nieces and nephews.

Her parents, husband, sisters Jackie and Rosa, and brothers Alberto, Luciano, Juan and Luis preceded her in death.

The family would like to thank the staff of Miranda House, especially Paul, Kiva and Natasha for their loving care of Provie for the past seven years.

Remembrances may be made online to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research at: michaeljfox.org

Mass of Christian burial will be on Friday, September 4, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. at St Peter Claver Catholic Church in Wapato. Interment will follow at Terrace Heights Memorial Park in Yakima. Merritt Funeral Home is entrusted with the arrangements.