Martha J. Romero

At age 96, Martha journeyed home to our Lord on June 6, 2025. She was born in Tucson, Arizona to parents Ruperto Jayme, Jr. and Domitila Gorosave. In 1950, she married Luis D. Romero and together they raised six children – three sons and three daughters.

Martha was a genuine and authentic woman full of love and devotion for her husband through 73 years of marriage. She lovingly provided the best of a mother’s endless supply of faith in all of her children – translation: she spoiled us kids rotten with her unwavering emotional support, pride, and absolute love - we were so lucky! She was also a fabulous grandmother to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was known by all for her compassion, kindness and friendliness to everybody she met through her work, church and social events.

In 1947 Martha graduated from Tucson High School and continued on to Cox Commercial Business School. After completing her business courses, she went to work for Arizona Trust in their insurance division then became a stay- at-home mom in 1951. In 1973 Mom decided it was time to head back out to work and she was hired as a sales clerk for Bill Ackerman’s Pen Shop, located in downtown Tucson. Mom worked there until her retirement in 1988. She fondly remembers helping actor Abe Vigoda (character “Detective Fish” on the Barney Miller TV show) when he stopped in the pen shop to buy office supplies. Mom did not pass up on a clever goodbye to Mr. Vigoda when he was leaving the shop by telling him: “Give my regards to Bernice”, his fictional wife on that show. (He later mailed her his autographed photo.) We always enjoyed her sense of humor but we six kids could make Mom laugh too but only when we weren’t driving her crazy (see “3 snaps” below).

Not one to stay idle in retirement, Mom took a part-time demonstration job and proudly promoted new products in local grocery stores – she even at one time donned a large Oreo Cookie costume to wear during her store demo. Walt framed Mom’s Oreo Cookie snapshot and kept it on his desk at work. She officially gave up the demo work around 1997. Mom also proudly worked almost all general and primary elections from 1972 through 2008.

When we kids were in our earlier formative school years, Mom was the ever dutiful home-school tutor parent because no summer was ever spent only in play. She made sure our math skills were practiced a few times per week. Additionally, Mom required summer reading as well so every two weeks she would drive us to the libraries to get our borrowed books. She assigned chores and she made sure we could all cook, clean and fend for ourselves. She and Daddy still made sure fun happened too with spur-of-the-moment picnics, large extended family backyard barbeques with volleyball and horseshoes games, loading us up in the truck bed to go watch a Disney movie at a drive-in outdoor theater or just going for a car ride to visit and explore another Arizona town.

Mom was always an avid map aficionado as she would whip them all out when she and Daddy scheduled one of their vacation trips. If you had a trip planned, you had to share your maps with her so she could follow in the adventure. Dale has fond memories of Mom loading us kids up in the car for trips to the toy stores so we could pick out a toy as a treat – maybe we were good kids in those particular moments. For those who don’t know it, Mom elicited the fear of God in us with her authoritative 3-finger snaps to correct our behaviors instantaneously. Mom’s sewing skills were amazing because there were many Christmas gifts made with love like our flannel pajamas sewn in secret while we were in school. She took the time to even sew us girls our Barbie dolls’ clothes. Our Christmas mornings were always made magical by Mom.

Martha was preceded in death by her husband Luis D. Romero, her brother, Ruperto Vicente, sister Colombina, her two children Christina Romero Tearney, Adam Romero, and great-grandson Adam Basurto. She is survived by her children Walter (Deborah), Dale (Gloria), Annette (Roy) and Gina, and son-in-law Charles Tearney. She is also survived by her grandchildren Melanie, Lauren, Pilar, Daniel, Andrea, Rachel, Monica and Margaret; great-grandchildren Chelsie, Stacy, Savannah, Solana, Sophie, Leilani, Ariana, and Avery.

Celebration of Martha’s life will be held on Saturday, June 21, 2025 at Brings Broadway Chapel at 6910 E. Broadway Blvd, Tucson, AZ 85710 at 1:00 PM. The family will hold a private interment at Holy Hope Cemetery at a later date.