Blanca Margarita Guadalupe, of Warwick, passed away on September 3, 2013 at Schervier Pavilion. She was 91 years old.
Born on February 19, 1922 in Panama Canal Zone (a US citizen of Puerto Rican decent), she was the daughter of the late Sgt. Juan Manuel and Carmen (Noguera) Villanueva.
She was married to the late Orlando Guadalupe (2007).
A family statement read “Her father was in the US Army 65th regiment, the only all Hispanic regiment from Puerto Rico stationed in the Panama Canal Zone under Eisenhower’s first command. She was one of 12 children. She attended Hunter College in 1940 as a chemistry major and Biology minor. She was a member of the American Women Volunteer Services in NYC She spoke English, Spanish, French and German and worked for over 44 years at Public National Bank which was taken over by Bankers Trust and later worked at Long Island Savings as a platform officer. She loved classical music and the arts as well as literature, this she shared with her husband. She loved to sing especially in her church. She traveled extensively with her husband throughout Europe, South America, Mexico, Caribbean, and Hawaii and, American Samoa living in Spain for six months while her husband was on sabbatical. When her mother had a stroke she stayed home to care for her until her final days and afterwards returned to work. She loved unconditionally everyone she met. Her grandchildren, and all her nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews and great great nieces and nephews give testimony to her gentle and loving spirit always with a smile. She loved her husband tremendously always being by his side and loved her daughter, grandchildren and great grandchildren enormously. She was a wonderful loving and caring mother to me giving good advice and wise counsel all the while being a good example of God’s love. She was a tremendous support of everything I did always encouraging me to do my best I will greatly miss taking care of her, our talks and games of scrabble. Good-by mom, I will always love you. I want to thank the staff at the Schervier Pavilion in Forest Hall who lovingly cared for my mom in her final days.”
She is survived by her daughter, Margarita Smykla and her husband Vincent of Warwick; her grandchildren: Margarita Elizabeth Bevilacqua of Tennessee, Randolph William Knop and his wife Becca of Texas, and Erika Leigh Mc Craw and her husband Logan of Tennessee and two great grandchildren Ava Grace and William Gage.
Visitation will be on Monday September 9th from 2-4 & 7-9 at Lazear-Smith & Vander Plaat Memorial Home, 17 Oakland Avenue, Warwick. Funeral service will be at 10:30 am on Tuesday at Crossroads Church, 12 Edsall Street, Hamburg, NJ. Interment will follow in Rose Hill Cemetery, Putnam Valley, NY.