Leonor Ana Pardo

She was schooled by Dominican nuns at Colegio Nuestra Señora del Rosario in Bogota, Colombia where she excelled at basketball, French and debate.

She graduated high school at 16 years of age. Eager to continue her studies but unsupported by her father, she moved to New York with the help of her mother, who forged both parent’s signatures on the travel permit that was required for minors at the time.

In New York, she worked as an au pair for one year for an oil executive’s family before enrolling at Queen’s College where she completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration while working part-time as an airport announcer at JFK Airport. Upon receiving her degree, she began working at Sinclair Oil Corporation headquartered in New York City.

Becoming the first person in her family to complete a college education, she began helping her younger brothers and sisters in the 1960s immigrate to the U.S. and make lives of their own.

She met the love of her life, Robert Pardo, when he was the resident physician to her mother who had been hospitalized in Bogotá, Colombia. They married in 1969 and moved back to New York City in 1970 as her husband had obtained a medical residency at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

She settled in Weslaco, TX, with her husband in 1975 where they opened his internal medicine practice. She became his office manager and always said she wouldn’t have survived the trials and tribulations of running a medical office for 30+ years without her right hand/confidant/sister, Rosie Becerra.

While she held various officer positions in the civic, educational and medical arenas throughout her life, what she most enjoyed was hearing people’s stories and offering warmth and compassion to those who had less than her.

She gave away a great part of her financial wealth during her lifetime to orphanages in Mexico, Colombia and Southeast Asia, children’s hospitals and battered women’s shelters in the U.S., elderly initiatives and global disaster relief organizations. A devout Roman Catholic all her life, she nevertheless contributed yearly to Jewish, Muslim and Hindu efforts to better the health and educational lives of children and women.

Her prides of joy were her two daughters, Pamela Clarissa and Natasha Alexandra. She instilled in both the importance of tolerance, compassion, respect and unconditional love.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Rosa Maria del Carmen Sarmiento and Victor Manuel Caicedo, of Chocontá, Colombia; sister, Margarita and two brothers.

She is survived by her husband of 52 years, Robert; daughters Pamela Voss of Austin, TX and Natasha Pardo of Weslaco, TX; granddaughter Lilith Voss of Austin, TX and grandson Nicolas Reyna of Weslaco, TX; sisters Isabel Caicedo (CT), Teresa Venegas (TX), Ines Caicedo (Colombia) and brothers German Caicedo (NY), Rafael Caicedo (TX) and Manuel Caicedo (Colombia); and numerous nieces, nephews and their children that she loved as though they were her very own.

A visitation for Leonor will be held Sunday, October 9, 2022 from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM with a Rosary at 7:00 PM at Funeraria del Angel Highland, 6705 N. FM 88, Weslaco, TX 78596. A funeral mass will occur Monday, October 10, 2022 at 10:00 AM at St. Pius C.C. Mrs. Pardo will be cremated at a later date.