Monday, April 29, 2024
Sarah Ortunio Gomez passed to eternal life on Saturday, July 29, 2023. God blessed her with 101 years on earth. Sarah was a wonderful mother, wife, and devoted Christian. Psalms 23 was one of her favorite Bible passages.
A service to honor Sarah’s life will be held Saturday, October 7, 2023, at 11 a.m. at the Coryell Valley Church, 4995 FM 929 in Gatesville.
Sarah was born at home in Kyle, Texas on December 10, 1921, the youngest child of Francisco and Elisa Ortunio. She was close with her sister Adelina and brothers Abel and Frank.
Sarah attended public schools in Kyle and was the first Hispanic student to graduate from high school there. Her teachers encouraged her to go to college and she attended Southwest Texas State Teachers College (now known as Texas State University) in San Marcos, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. One of Sarah’s early jobs was as a teacher in a rural school in Guadalupe County where she lived in a house next to the school during the week and where students had to hand pump water from a well. She said her 34 students were respectful, and she rarely had to discipline them.
Sarah’s commitment to God and her faith in Christ was nurtured by her Spanish-language church, El Buen Pastor (The Good Shepherd) Methodist Church in San Marcos. It was through the ministry of that church that she met her husband, Sotero Gomez of Carrizo Springs. She and Sotero were married on a snowy, February 2, 1951, at the First Methodist Church in Kyle by Reverend Carlos Garcia. In 1952, she and Sotero were hired by Charles Reeve to teach at the State School for Boys in Gatesville, where she taught reading. She would later teach women at the Texas Department of Corrections Mountain View Unit. Sarah was always a positive and optimistic teacher. Sarah and Sotero made Coryell County their home for the remainder of their lives. She and Sotero were married for 65 years and raised three sons; Oscar, Victor, and Andy, in their Jackson Drive neighborhood. She and her family were also active in the First United Methodist Church.
Sarah stayed busy in her retirement, taking care of her husband, visiting shut-ins and others who were in nursing homes, walking several miles daily, singing gospel songs, and attending church activities.
In 2013, Sarah and Sotero moved to family-owned land on Coryell Creek. The Gomez family had restored an abandoned church on their property and deeded it to the Wesleyan Church, a denomination started from the Methodist tradition. Sarah was a faithful member of the Coryell Valley Church.
She was preceded in death by her parents, siblings, and in 2016, her husband, Sotero.
Sarah is survived by her three sons, several grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and nieces and nephews.
Sarah spent her final years cared for and loved by family, church friends, and caregivers. She will be laid to rest beside her beloved husband Sotero on their land in Coryell Valley. Memorials may be made to Coryell Valley Church, 4995 FM 929, Gatesville, Texas 76528.
