Maria Teresa Garza De Marin

BROWNSVILLE, TX. – Maria Teresa Garza de Marin entered into eternal rest on Sunday, the 5th of June 2022 in Olmito, Texas. She was ninety-one.

“La Mari”, as she was affectionately known by her family and friends, was born on the 21st of August 1931 in Monterrey, Mexico, daughter of Noe Garza II and Ernestina Garza Trevino. She was raised in Brownsville, Texas as a young child, then moved with her family to Matamoros, and eventually returned to live in Brownsville later in life. She attended a catholic boarding school in Victoria, Texas as a teenager and graduated from Villa Maria High School in Brownsville.

Maria Teresa loved sharing her wonderful and humorous childhood memories, always smiling with the stories getting funnier with each retelling. From sitting at a very young age at her paternal grandfather’s dining table eating botanas and being given a sip of Carta Blanca beer as he entertained his friends and business associates; to spending extended summers at the beach in tents with all her family savoring sand filled sandwiches; playing hooky and getting caught trying to sneak back at the boarding school in Victoria, and ever after being pointed out by the nuns as the bad example; to spurning her husband’s initial romantic entreaties because he was too old for her, as he had first been her father’s friend; to learning to drive in a huge Chrysler Imperial where she could only see through the steering wheel, and running over a car’s open door.

Whether creating beautiful paintings depicting landscapes to abstract art, playing the piano beautifully from Boogie Woogie to Rachmaninoff, or sewing masterpieces, La Mari was uniquely talented, wonderful, joyful, caring, sentimental, and kind.

She married Mariano Marin in 1954. They were inseparable. Their marriage lasted sixty-five years until his death. She was truly a devoted wife and mother. And as a grandmother, she doted on her grandchildren who knew her as Ñaña.

We shall all miss her terribly.

Maria Teresa is survived by her daughter, Marisa Richetta (Romano); her son, Carlos Marin (Elena); her brother, Jose Eduardo “Coche” Garza (La Bebe); her brother-in-law, Hiram O. Marin (Norma); her granddaughters, Marisa Cristina Richetta, Alessandra Richetta, Giuliana Richetta, and Rebecca Marin Shepherd (Clay); her grandson, Tomas Marin; and by her numerous nieces and nephews.

Preceding Maria Teresa in death was her father, Noe Garza II; her mother, Ernestina Garza; and her brother, Noe Garza III.

The family wishes to thank the wonderful and loving care offered by the doctors and nurses at Valley Baptist Medical Center and the equally wonderful and caring staff of Sunshine Haven Special Care Facility in Olmito, Texas.

We also wish to especially recognize the uniquely loving devotion and care provided by our cherished Karla to both of our parents over the years. What a wonderful blessing she has been.

Visiting hours will be held on Saturday, the 18th of June 2022 between the hours of eleven o’clock in the morning and two o’clock in the afternoon, with a blessing, recitation of the holy rosary, and remarks to follow from two o’clock to four o’clock in the afternoon within the East Chapel of Darling-Mouser Funeral Home. All services will conclude at the funeral home.

In lieu of floral arrangements, please provide donations to the Sunshine Haven Special Care Facility in Olmito.

Memories of Maria Teresa may be shared at www.darlingmouser.com.

Personalized funeral arrangements directed by Steven R. Hieu Bailey and Staff have been entrusted to the care of Darling-Mouser Funeral Home at 945 Palm Boulevard in Brownsville, Texas 78520, (956) 546-7111.