Karen Gleason
Del Rioan Jose Rodriguez celebrated his 100th birthday Wednesday.
Members of Rodriguez’s family who still live in the area gathered in a courtyard outside La Vida Serena Nursing and Rehabilitation to help him honor the milestone event.
Rodriguez’s son, Gus Rodriguez, and Rodriguez’s daughter, Sylvia Mata, a resident of Bandera, Texas, described their father as “a simple, can-do man who worked hard all of his life.”
Jose Rodriguez worked for decades as a sheep shearer, eventually running his own shearing contracting business, son Gus Rodriguez recalled.
Gus said his father sheared sheep on ranches throughout Val Verde, Kinney and Edwards counties.
“He was active all of his life. He supported six kids, and we always had everything we needed,” Gus recalled.
Jose Rodriguez’s children include Gus Rodriguez, Sonia Arizpe, Jose Luis Rodriguez, Sylvia Mata, “Cookie” Carreno and the late Santa Venegas. Jose Rodriguez was married for 71 years to the late Maria Luisa Rodriguez.
Gus said his father was in his nineties when he fell and was injured working in his yard and went to La Vida Serena to live.
La Vida Serena staff on Wednesday decorated a room with banners, balloons and cake next to the courtyard where Rodriguez’s family members gathered so they could “celebrate” with only a pane of glass between them.
