Page 2 - Mid Valley Times 10-8-20 E-dition

Obituaries
Socorro Carranza
Socorro Carranza of Visalia died Sept. 25. She was 62.
Mrs. Carranza was a homemaker.
She is survived by her husband, Raymond Martinez, two sons, three daughters, one brother, three sisters and six grandchildren.
Services were held Oct. 7. Sterling & Smith Funeral Home handled the arrangements.
Joaquina Fraga
Joaquina H. Fraga of Dinuba died Sept. 28 in San Jose. She was 84.
Mrs. Fraga owned her own bakery.
She is survived by one son, four daugh- ters, seven grandchil- dren and three great- grandchildren.
A mass was held Oct. 8, at St. Cathe- rine of Siena Catholic Church in Dinuba. Buri- al followed at Smith Mountain Cemetery in Dinuba.
Dopkins Dinuba Fu- neral Chapel handled the arrangements.
Felipe Marquina
Felipe Marquina of Reedley died Oct. 4 in Reedley. He was 87.
Mr. Marquina worked in farm labor.
He is survived by his wife, Luisa Marqui- na, eight daughters, 17 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
A mass will be held at 10 a.m. Oct. 14, at the old St. Anthony's Cath- olic Church in Reedley. Burial will follow at
Thursday, October 8, 2020 | A2 | Mid Valley TiMes
Tragedy of COVID-19 deals
Reedley Cemetery. Dopkins Reedley Funeral Chapel is han- dling the arrangements.
Socorro Payan
Socorro Payan of Di- nuba died Oct. 2 in Di- nuba. She was 97.
Mrs. Payan worked as a machine operator.
She is survived by two daughters, two sons, 14 grandchildren, 39 great-grandchildren, 22 great-great-grand- children and one sister.
Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Tues- day, Oct. 13, at Dopkins Dinuba Funeral Chapel. Service will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 14, at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Dinuba.
Janetta Studts
Janetta Jean Studts of Reedley died Sept. 24 in Reedley. She was 91.
Mrs. Studts worked as a manager.
She is survived by three daughters, one brother, one sister, five grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and seven great-great- grandchildren.
A graveside service will be at 11 a.m. Fri- day, Oct. 16 at Reedley Cemetery.
Remembrances can be made to Hinds Hos- pice Home, 2490 W. Shaw Ave., Suite 101, Fresno CA 93711; or to Palm Village Retire- ment Community, 703 W. Herbert Ave., Reed- ley CA 93654.
tough blow to Sanger man
Jeff Downs lost his wife, father-in-law to virus, now facing financial difficulties
By Rick Curiel
Mid Valley Times
A Sanger man is reeling after having suffered a grave loss at the hands of the COVID-19 Coro- navirus. In late July, the Downs family household, made up of Jeff, his wife Jennifer and her father, Bill, was infected with the virus.
The family had been living in their dream home, purchased last year in Sanger after having lived in Harlan Ranch in Clovis, when they were struck with the disease. The diagnosis came just days after Jennifer had celebrat- ed her 40th birthday. It also coin- cided with Jennifer’s father being placed on in-home hospice care at the couple’s home in Sanger. The couple had taken him in about four years ago.
By late July, Jennifer’s con- dition had taken a turn for the worse, requiring her to be ad- mitted into an Intensive Care Unit. As Jennifer underwent treatment for COVID-19, Jeff, along with nurses who would come two to three times a week, helped care for his father-in- law, Bill.
Jeff had also tested positive for the virus but was able to re- cover without the need for exten- sive care. His father-in-law, how- ever, ultimately passed of kidney failure on Aug. 6, leaving Jeff to suffer the grief alone while Jen-
Photo contributed
Bill Downs, right, of Sanger lost his wife Jennifer, left, and father-in-law to COVID-19 in August.
nifer remained in ICU.
Twenty days later, Jennifer
passed away from complications due to COVID-19.
“Her family is beyond devas- tated,” said family friend Valerie Shelton. “But no one misses her as much as her husband.”
Jeff and Jennifer had been married for 17 years and had planned on adopting and having a large family in their new Sanger home. Now, Jeff is left alone in a house he can no longer afford, as Jennifer was the primary bread- winner as a special education teacher at Pioneer Middle School in Hanford.
Jeff’s modest income as a groundskeeper at California State University, Fresno cannot even cover the mortgage of their new home. And so, a GoFundMe campaign was started by Shelton to help him through this difficult time.
His plan, according to Shelton,
is to sell the house in order to be- gin anew. However, because he is now unable to afford his pay- ments, his mortgage has been in forbearance and he is unable to place the home up for sale until the mortgage is paid up to date.
“He intends to downsize,” said Shelton. “But he’s lost so much al- ready, he’d like to spend one last Christmas in his wife’s dream house before selling.”
He also anticipates receiving money from his father-in-law’s life insurance plan, but because his wife was the benefactor on the policy, he will have to go to court in order to receive those funds.
The GoFundMe campaign aims to help bring him current on his mortgage payments to al- low him to sell the house as well as help with attorney fees for the life insurance claim.
To help, go to gf.me/u/yun8az.
BROWN Continued from page A1
office. Before becoming chief, Brown served as
acting chief in 1978-79. At Reedley, he served as an officer (1972-74), police sergeant (1974-75) and police commander (1975-78).
Joe Garza, Reedley's
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current police chief, said that Brown was one of the longest serving po- lice chiefs, and called him praised his leadership.
"He was truly a men- tor, and a lot of people considered him a mentor and friend," Garza said. "He leaves a great lega- cy with the department."
On the Reedley Po- lice Department's Face- book page, a tribute was posted.
"Chief Brown was known as a crime fighter, a mentor and a friend. But, to a lot of us he was our Chief," the
tribute read. "The world has lost a great man but heaven has gained an- other warrior."
Under Brown, the department established a K-9 dog handling pro- gram. Garza was one of the officers who worked on the program.
Brown suffered from Parkinson's dis- ease in recent years, and his family has said that remembrances can be made in his name to the Parkinson's Founda- tion. In addition, remem- brances can be made to the Reedley Police De-
partment's K-9 Unit. Services for Brown are tentatively sched- uled for 10 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13, in front of the department at Reedley City Hall. A police honor guard will pay tribute to the chief, who was a mili- tary veteran. The portion of G Street in front of City Hall is slated to be temporarily closed to al-
low for attendees. Brown is survived
by his wife, Kathleen Brown, along with two sons, two daughters, 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
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Elias C Olveda Sr.
Elias C Olveda Sr., husband of the late Helen Olveda, passed away Monday, September 14, 2020. Born on February 8th, 1930 in Allende, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. He was the son of the late Elena & Jesus Olveda. He is survived by his children : Ruben Olveda, Clara M Olveda-Harkness, Billy (Memo) Olveda, Darlene Olveda-Gomez, Elias Olveda Jr. and Elena Olveda. He is also survived by 15 grandchil- dren and 20 great grandchildren.
The funeral will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, October 16th at Holy Family Church located at 1275 Smith St., Kings- burg, California. The burial will be at the Kingsburg Cemetery immediately following the funeral mass.
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