Rufino De Los Santos

Rufino De Los Santos, of Sanger, died on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. He was 79 years old. Mr. De Los Santos was a lumber distributor. Visitation will be held on Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, at 8:30 a.m. at The Tabernacle of Sanger followed by a funeral Mass at 9 a.m. Burial will be at Sanger Cemetery. Wallin’s Sanger Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Jean Donahue

Jean Donahue was born Jean Verdella Anderson on Nov. 18, 1929, in Carver County, Minn. It was there that she grew up on a farm with her dad, stepmother, sister Cathy, and brothers Lloyd, Al, and Wayne. Adventure called after high school, so she and a friend drove to California in 1948. It was on this trip that fate would bring her to meet her soon-to-be husband Jim Donahue, while she was waitressing at Sierra Inn in Dunlap, Calif. 

Jean and Jim settled in Squaw Valley, Calif., in 1959. In those early years she worked in fruit packing during the summers to help the family. She worked for Chris Sorensen for several of those summers, labeling boxes, and then packing fruit. She introduced her children to hard work, summer heat, fruit packing, and peach fuzz. At home, always busy and never complaining, she cleaned, washed clothes, and was masterful at serving three hot meals daily. 

In 1966, Jean started working as a school bus driver for Kings Canyon Unified, and she loved her job! She made wonderful connections with the students she took pride in transporting, and she made a host of new friends along the way. 

Retiring from the school district in 1998, her traveling years began. Friendly, smiling, kind, and feisty, she was always up for adventure. Hiking with “the ladies” in the mountains every Wednesday brought her great joy. There were trips to New Zealand, Ireland, and New York City. She rafted down the Colorado River and backpacked over Kearsarge Pass into Cedar Grove. 

Mom taught us endurance in the face of adversity, often saying “this too shall pass.” Dementia clouded her last years, but she handled that with her usual grace and acceptance. She died at home on July 2, 2024, at age 94, much as she would have liked: quietly and without much fuss. 

She is survived by relatives from West Coast to East: her stepson John, daughter Patty, son Terry, and daughter Mary along with their families. She was a grandmother to four and a great-grandmother to seven. She touched so many lives with her laughter, adventurous spirit, and generosity. 

A huge thank you to the staff of Pryor Falls and Saint Agnes Hospice who cared for her so lovingly. Another heartfelt thank you goes to Debbie Leon who helped with Mom after she came home. 

There will be a graveside celebration of her life at Squaw Valley Cemetery on Aug. 24, 2024, at 10 a.m. 

Margarita Escobar

Margarita Escobar of Cutler, died on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024. She was 81 years old. Mrs. Escobar was a business owner. A Rosary will be held on Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, at 6 p.m. at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Cutler. A funeral Mass will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, at 10 a.m. at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Cutler. Interment will be at Smith Mountain Cemetery. Mrs. Escobar is survived by her two daughters, one son, six grandchildren, four sisters and three brothers. Dopkins Dinuba Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Jose Garcia, Jr.

Jose Garcia, Jr., was born June 23, 1940, in Mercedes, Texas, to parents Jose Garcia, Sr., and Georgina Vela Garcia. Sadly, Joe passed away July 25, 2024. He was the eldest of three brothers. The family settled in Parlier, Calif. Joe graduated from Reedley High School in June 1960. He served in the United States Army beginning in November 1960 for three years receiving an honorable discharge at the rank of Specialist 4th Class, Career Field: Artillery, Cook, and Sharpshooter. Joe attended Fresno City College taking general education and aeronautics (power plant). He transferred to Fresno State University majoring in industrial arts and technology with a minor in geography. 

Joe left college before completing his degree and pursued a career with Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company with 20 plus years of service working as supervisor in multiple departments. Joe left Pepsi to pursue a career being self-employed, starting his own business Cargo-Tech after his invention of the Load Stabilizer, a cargo load-securing device. Joe received the granting of a United States patent for inventor’s original creation of the Load Stabilizer on March 28, 1989. Later, Joe went on to have a career as a driver for Gorden Trucking, ending with a dedicated route from Los Angeles to Northern Oregon. Joe received an award for achieving 1,100,000 safe driving miles in 2000 before retiring from trucking. 

Joe was a generous, dedicated, loving, honest and hardworking family man. He loved traveling the countryside with an appreciation of the variety of landscapes, people and foods that occupied the United States. Joe was a humorous storyteller and jokester, loved animals, especially birds, and enjoyed being outdoors. 

Joe was preceded in death by his daughter Jeneen Bernal and her husband Jerry, his parents Jose and Georgina Garcia, and his brother Simon Vela Garcia. He is survived by his wife Monica of 59 years; his son Brian Garcia and wife Jennifer; his grandchildren Micheal Gonzales and wife Elle, Nicholas Garcia, Geneieve Bernal, Nolan Garcia and Jeremy Bernal; great-grandchildren Brielle Bernal and Navy Gonzales; his brother Rudy Garcia and wife Ann; and numerous cousins, nieces and nephews.

Aurelia Orozco

Aurelia Orozco of Sanger, died on Sunday, July 28, 2024. She was 88 years old. Mrs. Orozco was a homemaker. A funeral was held on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, at Wallin’s Funeral Home followed by a burial at Sanger Cemetery. Wallin’s Sanger Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Abner Roy Penner

Abner Roy Penner, of Reedley, died on Sunday, July 28, 2024. He was 95 years old. Mr. Penner was a business owner. A graveside service will be held on Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, at 9 a.m. at Reedley Cemetery. Mr. Penner is survived by his spouse, Olene Penner; two sons; three brothers; two sisters; eight grandchildren; 20 great-grandchildren; and two great-great-grandchildren. Dopkins Reedley Funeral Home is in charge or arrangements.

Pedro Rivera, Jr.

Pedro Rivera, Jr., of Del Rey, died on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. He was 32 years old. Mr. Rivera was a laborer. Services were held on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024, at Reedley Cemetery. Wallin’s Sanger Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements..

Noboru Takasaki

Noboru (Nob) Takasaki, 98, of Parlier, passed away on July 5, 2024 at Sierra View Skilled Nursing in Reedley. 

Services will be held on Aug. 10 at 10 a.m. at the Buddhist Church of Parlier, with graveside burial being held on Aug. 12 at 10 a.m. at the Reedley Cemetery. 

Memorials may be made to the Buddhist Church of Parlier, where he was a member for many years. 

Nob, was born Aug. 22, 1925, in El Monte, Calif., the son of Shigetaro and Satomi Kawamoto Takasaki. 

His wife, Fusako Kato Takasaki, whom he married in 1953, passed away Dec. 13, 2018. 

Nob had no children, but he is survived by one brother, Yasuo Takasaki, 103, of Monterey; one sister, Yukiye Takayama, 94, of Reedley; and numerous in-laws, nieces and nephews, great-nieces and -nephews and great-great-nieces and -nephews. 

Seven brothers and sisters are deceased: Hanako Takasaki, Chisako (Betty) Matoba, George Takasaki, Mitsuye Mori, Nobuo Takasaki, Masao Takasaki, and Toshiyuki Takasaki. 

Nob was a 1944 graduate of High School while interned at Poston, Arizona. 

Once he came to the valley after Poston, the family did anything they could do to survive. Working at a wine plant, sexing chickens, harvesting vegetables and working on the ranch with his brother, George. He was able to save up some money and buy his first ranch in Reedley. He then bought his forever home in Parlier in 1973. He enjoyed bowling for many years in Selma, Calif. He would go fishing as often as he could when he got off work. He loved deep sea fishing many times a year, leaving from San Diego and fishing in Mexico with his best friends Tom Yamanaka and John Kashiki. Nob enjoyed making his own tsukemono, seaweed, umeboshi, dried persimmons and harvesting bamboo from his secret spot. 

What made him special to the family was the opening of his home to anyone who came for Mochitsuki, the celebration of good fortune and symbolizing gratitude for the new year. Mochitsuki is the making of rice cakes, called mochi. Men and the older kids would steam/cook sweet rice on an old iron stove. After steaming the rice, we would grind the rice in a meat grinder (they used to use wooden mallets) and the women and young children would mold them into the rice cakes, which were stacked on grape trays. Nothing was better than toasting the fresh mochi on the barrel that boiled the water to help steam the rice. After making the mochi, the family would eat a buffet of wonderful food that the families would bring to share with everyone. After eating, we would split up the mochi for each of the families.

Laura Andrea Zuniga

Laura Andrea Zuniga of Sanger, died on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. Mrs. Zuniga worked as a mail clerk at the Internal Revenue Service. Rosary will be at 9:30 a.m. at The New St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Sanger followed by a funeral Mass at 10 a.m. Wallins Sanger Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

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