OBITUARY Alicia Susana Zorrilla Avila Mudd July 17, 1920 – October 9, 2018 Alicia Susana Zorrilla Avila Mudd passed through the doors of God, on Tuesday, the 9th October 2018. She was fondly known by all who knew her as “Muñeca”. Not only was she defined by her beautiful presence and soul, but by her strength and courage.
As a 20 year old girl with two young children, she came to this country, as an immigrant, wife and mother, from a privileged Argentine family. She arrived in this country with her husband, Thomas O. Mudd, Jr., of Laredo, Texas and resided in Laredo for many years, until moving to Houston. Her story is long and representative of immense strength.
Muñeca was born in Salta, Argentina, but grew-up inSan Miguel de Tucuman, Argentina, where her two children, Judy and Tommy, were born. They spent their vacations in Buenos Aires with her family and with her beloved sister, Nelly Iramain, better known as “Gitana”. They would be the inseparable sisters for all of their adolescent years and again, during their late adult years.
Missing her family in faraway Argentina was sometimes all-consuming. All she had in common with Laredo was the Spanish speaking language and the love and strength of her sister-in-law, Mae Mudd Leyendecker. Muñeca, a devout Catholic woman, persevered through those early years and managed to grow into a new culture and a new life in this border town; never passing judgment on anything or anyone considering her upbringing and how she was raised.
She eventually found her place in Laredo, that had within it magical customs and people that would become her treasured friends for the rest of her life. She brought with her not only her elegance from a cosmopolitan city like Buenos Aires, but the Argentine customs of cultivating friends, gatherings and tea-times in her home. She loved having friends and family to entertain, for something as simple as tea and pastries, or something more formal as a well-prepared & elegant dinner.
Any excuse to have a gathering of people is what she probably loved to do the most. After moving to Laredo, Texas, it would be many years, before she would go back to Argentina to visit her beloved sister and mother, and all of the new family that had been born in her absence over all those many years. Communications were mostly by mail carriers and the brief phone calls gave her a surge of happiness.
She would have two more sons in Laredo: Joseph and Robert. She would be faced with challenging family issues, but always found a place in her mind and heart to confront, deal, accept, embrace and understand. The strength of love and the grace of God would have it that she was able to be by her beloved sisters side, when she suddenly and surprisingly passed-away in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Muñeca’s sense of self served her well since it kept her physically active. Living in Laredo, she had to have those early-morning power-walks, whether around the school block or when the doors opened at Mall del Norte. She always managed to look elegant and put-together no matter where she went.
The times were numerous when people would ask who that elegant woman was by our side. Her enviable genes kept her forever healthy and strong. She had children who stood by her and managed to help her make-up for all those challenging and sad years in her life, by giving her many wonderful experiences.
Her children were able to show her the world and the privileged life she had left behind. Her faith, her church, her family and friends always came first. She is predeceased by her husband, Thomas O. Mudd, Jr. (1990), and her sons: Thomas O. Mudd, III.
(2007), Joseph J. Mudd (2018) and grandson, Carlo A. Gutierrez (2005). She is survived by: her daughter, Judith M. Gutierrez-Pappas of Houston, Texas, and her son, Robert C. Mudd of Santa Monica, California. She leaves behind six grandchildren: Robert M. Gutierrez, Jr., Ricardo R. Gutierrez, Thomas Mudd,IV.
, Daniel Mudd, Andrew Mudd, and Alexandra Mudd; daughter-in-law, Laura Mudd; five great grandchildren: Analise Gutierrez, Alexa Gutierrez, Alyssa Gutierrez, Ricardo Gutierrez, Jr., and Ivy Mudd; niece, Mary Frances Peña of Austin, and several nieces & nephews residing in Argentina”. We are confident that she has walked through those heavenly gates, and has returned to be back with those who have left before her and whom she has missed so very much. We are blessed to have had this great woman and role model in our lives and her soul now becomes our guardian angel.
We miss you, and love you and some day we will meet again to pick-up where we left off. We wish to sincerely thank all of her caregivers: Delia Hernandez, Blanca Rivera, Xiomara Dueñas and Anna Montecino, for their continuous dedication, love and care. A memorial service, in celebration of Muñeca’s very full life is to be conducted at one o’clock in the afternoon on, Friday the 26th of October 2018, at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church, 1801 Sage Rd.
, in Houston. Immediately following the service, all are invited to gather and share remembrances of Muñeca during a short reception at Four Leaf Towers, 5100 San Felipe Street, in the East Tower.
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