Spanish official visits Zuni



St. Anthony's School Kindergarteners Mckenz Leekya, left, holding a handmade gift, and Kimberly Hooee, right, present a T-shirt to Gonzalo Gomez-Dacal, councilor of education and science for the Spanish Embassy in Washington, D.C., Thursday.

Photo by Craig Robinson



Local photographers and bicycle adventurists Bill Siebersma and Milan Sklenar talk about their summer bike trek from the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. They will show some of their work and discuss their trip at 8 tonight at Crashing Thunder Gallery in Gallup.

Photo by Jeff Jones

 

---

Loan scam cheats area cash seekers

S.J. Ludescher
Staff Writer

GALLUP — If someone wants to loan money and the deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. A recent advertisement in the classified section of the Independent and other newspapers across the country appears to be a financial scheme designed to bilk trusting consumers out of their money.

The scheme came to light from the watchful eye of Mike Lunnon, owner of Mailboxes, Etc. at Rio West Mall.

The ad, which the Independent canceled, stated: "Tired of hearing 'Sorry not approved for a loan?' We can help..." and has a phone number of a Canadian-based Arthur Anderson and Associates. Even though the name is the same as a well-known and highly respected global accounting firm, they are not affiliated.

"They are trying to trade on the reputation of this large company," Pete Siverts, Western Union vice president of corporate communications, said.

After calling the phone number in the ad, the customer is asked to supply copies of pay stubs, driver's license and Social Security number. The customer is also asked to explain the purpose of the loan. If the loan applicant claims that paying off credit card debts is the reason, then the account numbers of the credit cards also are requested.

After completing the application, the customer is told to send a fee; in Gallup that has been about $550. The amount of the loan requested, the smallest amount being $5,000, determined the amount of money the consultant asked the consumer to send. In 48 hours, the customer is instructed to collect the money from the loan at Western Union. Of course, there is no money.

"You shouldn't have to pay money to get a loan," Siverts said.

Lunnon learned of the scam when a customer alerted him. He had stopped a few times over several days looking for money that was supposed to be wired to the store's Western Union location. Lunnon's customer had applied for a loan with the Canadian company and wired $550 to them. However, a security operator for Western Union called the customer at home and told him that they had stopped payment on the transfer because they had complaints and were investigating the company as a scam.

FBI agents also have identified the company's claims as possible mail and fraud by wire. They currently are investigating the operation to assess the scope of the organization and the amount of the fraud.

A question as to the location of the company headquarters also exists. "If the company turns out to truly in Canada," FBI spokesman Bill Elwell, said, "then we will be calling the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for assistance, as well."

Lunnon said two other customers had also wired money to the alleged Canadian scam artists in the past week. After learning about the fraud, Lunnon recovered some of the money for his other customers. He has also alerted other Western Union locations in Gallup and on the Navajo Reservation to the scam.

| Top |

---

Spain, Zuni see common links

S.J. Ludescher
Staff Writer

ZUNI — A belief that "Language is the heart of life" brought Gonzalo Gomez-Dacal, councilor of education and science for the Embassy of Spain, halfway around the world to visit the Pueblo of Zuni.

Dacal and a contingent of education experts from around New Mexico, Washington, D.C., and Spain flew in to Zuni in Gov. Gary Johnson's plane late Thursday afternoon for the three-hour visit.

Dacal visited the Old Mission Church for a quick welcome and blessing then headed to observe classes in progress at St. Anthony Indian School and A'Shiwi Elementary School.

The purpose of the visit was to view firsthand the newly-expanded pilot program for language immersion.

At St. Anthony's, Dacal watched some of the top students answer history, geography and cultural questions about Spain then were treated to a brief geography lesson about Spain by Dacal.

He pointed to the central part on a map of Spain drawn on the chalkboard and told the students how much it looked like New Mexico.

"Because it is close to Portugal," he said, "we speak a dialect of Spanish that is very close to Portuguese."

At A'Shiwi, kindergarten and first-grade students participated in their class activities entirely in the Zuni language.

Teacher Odell Jaramillo explained that she stresses the use of rhymes and songs to teach the Zuni vocabulary. Students performed the songs for the visitors, appropriate for January the month of snow. "It's snowing from the East and the West, snowing all over," the children sang.

"Because it's New Year's, we have a blessing for you," they said in Zuni to the delegates.

Dacal explained part of the historic connection between Zuni and Spain. "We each share a history and an interest in working with you in the future," he told the crowd of parents, administrators, students and teachers. "We have strong ties with New Mexico and the pueblos with language. We want to work to help reconstruct languages, English, Spanish and Zuni."

Spain and Zuni still have compacts that are honored and considered part of the culture.

Hundreds of years of history with the Zuni, Dacal said, had led to the use of the same five vowels, as well as a large number of common family names.

Zuni Tribal Council member Dan Simplicio held up his tribal staff, a traditional symbol of leadership. The staff, he said, was provided by King Ferdinand of Spain many years ago and is handed down from leader to leader.

Tribal Council member Eldred Bowekaty told Dacal they are grateful that "the government of Spain still believes in our sovereignty."

Language deficiencies for Zuni children in kindergarten through third grade had become so critical, school officials said, they decided to institute the volunteer language immersion program to help children succeed in school.

Zuni School Superintendent David Cockerham said, "Research shows that kids do better learning another language if they become firmly grounded in their mother tongue.

"By the time the student reaches third grade, our in-house research indicates that the student will not only be reading and writing at a higher level in Zuni but also in English. If they can do this, they can do anything."

Teachers began by teaching Zuni in the oral tradition, moving into writing and reading with older children as they become more comfortable with the language. The experiment has been so successful with the kindergarten and first graders, plans are under way to include second graders, as well.

"One of our goals is to have all children bilingual by the time they graduate from our school system," Cockerham said.

The Zuni district now has 11 certified bilingual teachers, half of them certified in Zuni. The other half are TESL certified teachers, specialists in instructing students who speak languages other than English.

Although the date has not been disclosed, the king and queen of Spain are expected to visit the pueblo soon.

| Top |

---

A happily married man and a sack full of misery

Walter Howerton Jr.
Managing Editor

There's a train every day and it's leaving either way.

"My Opening Farewell"

Jackson Brown



Home is where the heart is, but here I am, still in Gallup, more than 200 miles away.

I awoke the other night in a dry-mouthed panic realizing that trains don't wake me up any more. (NOT hearing a train woke me up in a sweat.) I don't hear the trains passing through Gallup! It scared me, kept me awake. I never meant to be here long enough for things to get this out of hand when I left home last year.

Home has begun to feel much farther away than a couple of hundred miles. In fact, I just added it up and in the past few months I have driven nearly 17,000 miles to live alone five days a week in Gallup and visit my wife on weekends somewhere else.

Some men my age would find this an ideal situation, or at least they think they would (I sometimes hear the mating calls of the recently or soon-to-be or longing-to be divorced over dinner). I don't.

I don't mind the actual miles. I love to drive. Sometimes I am happiest when I am driving. I have a fast, red sportscar. I love taking the top off my car in warm weather and ripping up and down Interstate 40 with the stereo blasting. I love busting the speed limit into the triple digits as I cross the Continental Divide. I like to hear Gram Parsons singing when I am driving west ("I headed west to grow up with the country," Gram sings, but that was before he died of an overdose back in the 1970s in
California and never grew up at all); but headed east, almost anyone can be singing because then I am headed for home.

My whole life I have loved being on the move, finding a contentment in motion that I have found nowhere else. Another writer identified this impulse in himself as "restless depression" and I'll admit that I have been as restless and depressed as anyone.

When I look out my Gallup back window and watch the traffic on I-40, it looks like there is an epidemic of restless depression moving across the land and back again. I suppose I have been a part of it, gloried in it, rambling so far from the place of my Southern birth that I lost my accent and never looked back, my restlessness and my depression linking up into a distorted
romantic image (what other kind of romantic image is there?) of who I was, where I wasn't, driving me on.

But lately, when I look out at I-40, I just see traffic. I find myself envying those who will not stop here, those who will end up in Arizona or California or Texas or Colorado in a few hours. And, most of all, I envy those who are headed for home, wherever that might be.

Later, when I am in bed, the trains don't rumble and roar through my sleep. I wake up frightened and alone. And I am a happily married man.

2.

I am not a bachelor, but I have been living a bachelor's life for the past seven months.

I have a small house in Gallup, a few pieces of furniture, a mattress and box springs, a tidy little kitchen. I have a landlady who mothers me a little sometimes and I don't mind (I like the idea of a mother who speaks Spanish). I do not live an exciting, single-guy life, prowling the bars or the coffee shops or the produce aisles of the local grocery stores or wherever it is exciting single-guys find their women around here these days.

I do not live like a single-guy because I don't want to.

I live more like one of those Masterpiece Theater bachelor uncles out of an English novel from the 18th or 19th century, those self-sufficient men who clearly are not homosexuals, but who seem unthreateningly not sexual at all, brandy sippers, orchid growers, history readers, men whose pasts hold tragic romance, lost love, dead love, no love at all. They are men of quiet mystery
and quiet mystery is better than no mystery at all.

I live quietly. I cook my own dinners. I keep my dishes washed. I spend my evenings reading by the window that overlooks the railroad tracks and I-40, smoking my pipe, sipping, listening to my radio. From time to time I write things down. I have grown very familiar with the blank white wall across the room from my reading chair. Sometimes I stare at it while I am thinking;
sometimes I simply stare at it. Then I go back to my reading and listening. I have eyes and ears, but I do not own a television.

(Along with the 17,000 miles I have driven in the past seven months, I have read about 50 books novels, stories, memoirs, non-
fiction, fiction, a history of the flu epidemic of 1919, a history of the year 1863 while listening to at least two symphony
broadcasts a week on the radio, usually more let's say 60-65 in seven months, some jazz on Mondays, and with Thursday nights
set aside for bluegrass music. I have a passion for music, for bluegrass and Mozart and jazz and Charles Ives.)

When I was a younger man, miserably lonely or unhappily married by turns, this is the life I dreamed of: a book, a pipe, a drink, a typewriter (I was young before computers), good music, a little house in some unlikely spot (and what spot could be more
unlikely than Gallup?) Now, in my middle age, I have found it. And I don't like it very much.

Why?

I am a happily married man. Gallup reminds me of being a younger, more miserable man. And when a man becomes a happily married man, he is embarrassed to recall the fantasies that grew out of his youthful misery (especially if they lasted nearly to his
40th birthday). It reminds him that more than once he was unhappily married to people willing to crawl inside the sleeping bag of his misery with him.

I have been happily married for almost 15 years because my wife does not share my misery (she is not particularly fond of
sleeping bags either). She is woman enough to make me put my misery aside and dream new and better things. I think I have
done the same for her. We are two grownups married to each other. The happiness and the being grown up go together
somehow. I haven't figured it all out yet, but I know I do not miss being young.

I do miss my wife.

I am a happily married man living by himself in Gallup, a man who sometimes wakes up frightened and alone, remembering the
old misery of being younger, longing for the sound of a train, finally dozing off remembering that half of those 17,000 miles have been driven away from Gallup and toward the home where the heart is, a place and a wife I thought I never would find.

Gotta go.

| Top |

---

Smith leads Grants past Hot Springs

Santiago Ramos
Staff Sports Writer

GRANTS — Grants senior guard Wayne Smith pumped 16 of his game-high 28 points in the final period to lift Grants past Hot Springs 72-61 in a crucial District 3AAA matchup Friday night.

Smith buried a total of five treys and sank 9-of-13 free throws as the Pirates erupted for 33 points in the final period to pull away from Hot Springs.

"He's a super kid," Grants coach Gerald Horacek said of Wayne Smith. "But it's a team effort that allows Wayne (Smith) to get open for his shots."

Grants, 10-6 overall, 2-1 in district play, will host Bernalillo next Tuesday in another key district matchup. The Pirates lost to Bernalillo 52-50 in overtime this past Tuesday. Grants will then host Cobre Friday before finishing up the district season on the road at Socorro, at Hot Springs and at Cobre.

The Pirates were coming off a pair of district overtime contests, beating Socorro 51-47 in OT and then losing to Bernalillo 52-50 also in OT.

"The district race is wide open," Horacek said. "Everybody's equal."

Grants has now beaten Hot Springs, a team that beat Socorro but lost to Grants. The Pirates lost to Bernalillo in overtime who lost to Hot Springs.

Friday night's district showdown against Hot Springs had all the makings of another OT battle. Hot Springs lost to Socorro 64-57, a team that Grants beat 51-47 in overtime. The Tigers however knocked off Bernalillo 88-79, a team that the Pirates lost to in OT 52-50 this past week.

Grants jumped out to an early lead against Hot Springs, 8-9 overall, 1-2 in district, with Smith nailing his first of five three-pointers in the game. Junior guard Joe Ross, who finished with a pair of treys and 10 points, popped his first trey and then came right back to hit a nice reverse layup. A pair of free throws by Smith pushed Grants' lead up to 12-4 at the end of the opening period, thanks to Hot Springs hitting on just 2-of-11 from the field.

Hot Springs' forward Grant Taylor, who led the Tigers with 24 points along with five treys, kept his team within range, hitting a turnaround shot, adding a free throw on the play and then coming right back to drill his initial three-pointer.

Hot Springs' Adam Berrera, who tallied 20 points, ran off three consecutive scores and Taylor gunned in back-to-back treys as the Tigers tied the game for the first time at 32-all midway through the third period. Hot Springs posted its first lead of the game when Brett Janos sank a pair of free throws.

"Hot Springs put it to us in the third period, outscoring us 21-10," Horacek said. "I challenged our kids to match that in the fourth period."

The game was tied three more times, the final time at 37-all after Pirate senior post Kyle James, who scored 13 points, scored off the baseline.

The Pirates had a chance for the lead but struggled at the free throw line, sinking just 2-of-7 chances which included a technical on Tiger Eric Musshorn for protesting a call.

Trailing 41-38 at the start of the fourth period, Grants proceeded to go on an offensive tear.

Smith came up with a pair of steals that he converted into two quick scores while James added another bucket on a baseline drive.
Ross and Smith then drilled successive treys that put Grants in front, 50-45.

After Taylor hit another trey for Hot Springs , Pirate senior forward Karl Chavez, who chipped in 12 points, scored on an offensive rebound. Smith nailed his fifth three-pointer of the game from NBA-range and then Smith dished out a nice feed to Chavez on a back door pass that gave Grants a nine-point cushion with 2:50 remaining. James found Chavez open for another
back door pass underneath for another score.

Despite the offensive eruption, the Pirates still were not able to put away the Tigers for good until the final 90 seconds.

Hot Springs were within five points, 61-56, after Taylor buried his fifth and final trey of the night. Grants still led, 62-58 with 1:22 left before going on a 10-3 run to seal the win.

Hot Springs lost Eric Musshorn with 1:34 left and Adam Ruiz with 40 seconds left. Grants' Ross fouled out with his fifth foul with 1:22 remaining in the game.

In the final two minutes of the game, Grants matched to the free throw line and sank 11-of-12 free throws with Smith sinking a perfect 6-of-6, James converting 3-of-4 and Ross sinking a pair before fouling out.

Grants had four starters in double digits with Wayne Smith with a game-high 28 points. Kyle James finished with 13 points, Karl Chavez added 12 and Joe Ross 10.

Hot Springs had Grant Taylor leading the way with 24 points with five treys while Adam Berrera, finished with 20.

From the free throw line the Pirates converted 21-of-27 free throws for 78 percent shooting while the Tigers were 12-of-15 for 80 percent.

From the field, Grants shot 51 percent (22-of-43) while Hot Springs was 22-of-50 for 44 percent. In the final period, Grants hit on a sizzling 10-of-12 shots from the field. From long range, the Pirates hit on 44 percenmt, 7-of-16 while the Tigers made 5-of-15 for 33 percent.

| Top |

---

Photographers call Arctic trek 'harsh, magnificent'

Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Special to the Independent

GALLUP — Few people ever see the majestic country of the Arctic region, but last year two Gallup photographers embarked on a 1,000-mile bike journey through the territory's harsh landscape.

At 8 tonight at the Crashing Thunder Studio, 228 W. Coal, Milan Sklenar and Bill Siebersma will show slides of their trip and discuss their experiences. The evening will also mark the closing of the pair's photography exhibit, "Arctic Journey," at the gallery.

Sklenar and Siebersma talked recently about the adventure, which began July 3 with their departure from Gallup via car, train,
ferry and plane to Inuvik, a small community north of the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories of Canada. The journey
ended in mid-August after the men biked into Skagway, Alaska.

"It was Arctic Ocean to Pacific Ocean," Sklenar said...

| Top |

---

Begaye's top aides look ahead to a 'New NAPI'

Larry Di Giovanni
Staff Writer

WINDOW ROCK — Two of Navajo President Kelsey Begaye's top aides, Chief of Staff Derrick Watchman and Natural Resources Director Arvin Trujillo, said Begaye is dedicated to finding the resources to make NAPI a profitable crop enterprise.

Trujillo and Watchman agreed to an interview earlier this week with the Independent. They said that while the Mid Kansas Agri Co. assessment points out major management problems at the Navajo Agricultural Products Industry, they look at the resulting recommendations as an opportunity and a potential beginning for a "New NAPI."

The Mid Kansas report said NAPI needs to be operated on a region-by-region basis, not a crop-by-crop basis, to boost accountability for those responsible for fields and equipment in each region.

"A healthy farm enhances other business opportunities," Trujillo said. "We can't continue to sit and point fingers and point blame; what we're trying to do here (with Mid Kansas) is get a true feel for the operation, so that we can address the issues that are there..."

| Top |

---

---

Deaths

William H. Vining

GALLUP — Services for William H. Vining, 82, will be held at 10 a.m., Monday, Jan. 29 at First Baptist Church. Pastor Jay McCollum will officiate. Burial will follow at Sunset Memorial Park.

Vining died Jan. 25 in Albuquerque. He was born April 12, 1918 in Athlestane, Wis.

Vining was a member of the First Baptist Church, was an ordained Deacon and a member of the NRA. He was a veteran of World War II serving in the U.S. Army as a Staff Sargent.

Survivors include his sons, David Vining of Gallup and Robert Vining ofColorado Springs, Colo.; daughters, Elaine Fry of Gallup and Linda Vining of Albuquerque; brother, Verle Vining of Nashkoro, Wis.; 14 grandchildren and five great-
grandchildren.

Vining was preceded in death by his wife, Minnie Vining and parents, Myrtle and Vern Vining.

Pallbearers will be Ted Farris, Anthony Guillen, Eddie Stalcup, Greg Stewart, Abraham Vining, David Vining, Enoch Vining,
Robert Vining and William Vining.

Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

Emma Louise Holtsoi

PINEDALE — Services for Emma Holtsoi, 61, will be held at 11 a.m., Jan. 29 at Cope Memorial Chapel. Pastor Gladstone W. Simmons will officiate. Burial will follow at Gallup City Cemetery.

Holtsoi died Jan. 23 in Gallup. She was born May 12, 1939 in Pinedale into the Two People Came Upon Water for the Mountain Cave People Clan.

Holtsoi attended Church Rock School, Pinedale Day School and Fort Wingate. She was employed with McKinley Manor, La
Barraca Resturant and a silversmith. Her hobbies included reading, sewing and art and crafts.

Survivors include her husband, Roy Holtsoi Sr. of Pinedale; sons, Roy Holtsoi Jr. and Patterson Holtsoi both of Pinedale;
daughters, Laverne Holtsoi and Angelina Holtsoi both of Pinedale; brothers, Bill Martin Sr. of Iyanbito and James Martin Sr.,
Jimmie Martin, Sammie Martin, Phillip Martin Sr. and Gilbert Martin all of Pinedale; sister, Shirley M. Lee of Pinedale and three
grandchildren.

Holtsoi was preceded in death by her parents, Eskey Martin and Lucille LargoMartin; brothers, Jay E. Martin, David Martin and
Nelson Martin Sr. and sister, Cecelia Miller.

Pallbearers will be Roy Holtsoi Jr., Patterson Holtsoi, Clinton Begay, Harold Miller, Harrison Miller and Bill Martin Jr.

The family will receive friends and relatives after the burial services at Pinedale Chapter House.

Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.

Freddie Tom Johnson Sr.

PREWITT — Services for Freddie Johnson Sr., 53, will be held at 1 p.m., Monday, Jan. 29 at Blue Mountain Mission, Prewitt.
Sister Angela Begay will officiate. Burial will follow at the City Cemetery, Grants.

Johnson died Jan. 22 in Grants. He was born Aug. 8, 1947 in Crownpoint into the Black Streak People for the Mexican People.

Johnson Sr. attended Phoenix Indian School. He's was a Vietnam Vetern, where he received numerous medals, National Defense Service, Vietnam Service, Vietnam Campaign, and Army Commendation.

Survivors include his son, Freddie T. Johnson Jr. of Casamero Lake; brothers, Marty Johnson and Eddie Hosteen both of Prewitt and William Johnson of Iyanbito; sister, Nellie B. Loretto of Prewitt and two grandchildren.

Johnson was preceded in death by his parents, Emma Nez and Tom Johnson; sister, Ella Nez and a grandson.

Pallbearers will be Eddie Hosteen Sr., Marty T. Johnson, Eddie Hosteen Jr., William T. Johnson Sr. and Eugene Hosteen.

Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.

Geronimo Pino

RAMAH — Services for Geronimo Pino, 65, will be held at 10 a.m., Monday, Jan. 29 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints, Ramah. Burial will follow at Ramah Community Cemetery.

Visitation will be at held one hour prior to at the church.

Pino died Jan. 24 in Blackrock. He was born April 10, 1935 in Ramah into the Mexican People for the Bitter Water People Clan.
Survivors include his son, Larry Pino of Ramah; brother, Tommy Pino; sisters, Nellie P. Coho, Dorothy Maria, Theresa Martine, Helen Pino, Irene Pino and Virginia Pino all of Ramah and seven grandchildren.

Pino was preceded in death by his parents, Hoskie Pino and Alkenedezbah Luna; daughters, Carol Pino and Clara Pino; brother,
David Pino and Joe Pino and sister, Annie Coho.

Pallbearers will be Albert Coho, Gerald Garcia, Geronimo Garcia, Leon Martine, Donald Pino and Joseph Whitetail Eagle Jr.

Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

Dororthy Silversmith Pearcy

COOLIDGE — Services for Dororthy Pearcy, 83, will be held at 10 a.m., Monday, Jan. 29 at Rehoboth Christian Reformed
Church. Rev. Larry Harper will officiate. Burial will follow on Private family land, Coolidge.

Pearcy died Jan. 24 in Gallup. He was born May 31, 1917 in Coolidge into the Start of the Red Streak People Clan for the Mexican People Clan.

Survivors include her brother, Joe A. Silversmith of Thoreau.

Pearcy was preceded in death by her husband, Francis R. Pearcy; parents, Antonio and Yaahaabaa Silversmith, two brothers and
two sisters.

Pallbearers will be Jefferson Cloud, Darrell Henio, Tommy Henio, Joe Herrera Jr., Tom Herrera, Casey Jim, Steven Johnson and
Nathaniel Notah.

Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

Marie Josie Tom

GALLUP — Services for Marie Josie Tom, 63, will be held at 1 p.m., Monday, Jan. 29 at Cope Memorial Chapel. Pastor Margaret Bill will officiate. Burial will follow at City Cemetery, Gallup.

Tom died Jan. 22 in Gallup. She was born April 14, 1937 in Rock Springs.

Tom was a homemaker and rug weaver.

Survivors include her daughter, Pauline Willie of Yah Ta Hey; sister, Helen Johnson of Gallup and eight grandchildren.

Pallbearers will be Leonard Nez, Benson Johnson, Sharon Brown, Erickson Johnson, Felicia Johnson and Anselm Plummer.

Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.

Juan Rivera

GRANTS — Services for Juan Nepomoseno Rivera, 83, will be held at 10 a.m., Tuesday, Jan. 30 at Saint Teresa Catholic
Church, Grants. Father Godfrey Blann will officiate. Burial will follow at Grants Memorial Park.

Visitation will be at held from 3-6 p.m., Monday, Jan. 29 at Saint Teresa Catholic Church.

A rosary will be recited at 7 p.m., Monday, Jan. 29 at Saint Teresa Catholic Church.

Rivera died Jan. 26 in Grants. He was born July 14, 1917 in Progresso.

Rivera retired from Teamsters Union and worked for Tanner Bros. Construction. He was a member of Saint Vivian's.

Survivors include his wife, Valeria Aragon Rivera; sons, Joe Rivera and Eddie Rivera both of Grants, Noel Rivera and Juan
Rivera both of Phoenix, and Emilio Rivera of Rio Rancho; daughters, Margaret Rivera and Barbara Martinez both of Phoenix; 26
grandchildren and 39 great-grandchildren.

Rivera was preceded in death by his parents, Jose and Socorro Chavez Rivera and son, Bino Rivera.

Pallbearers will be Juan Rivera Jr., Michael Garcia, Sergio Rivera, Joe Rivera Jr., Anthony Rivera and Emilio Rivera Jr.

Lucille Thomas

SUPRISE, Ariz. — Services for Lucille Thomas, 87, were held Jan. 20 at Chapel of Chimes, Glendale, Ariz.

Thomas died Jan. 17. She was born Feb. 9, 1913 in Heaton.

Survivors include her sons, Rufus Thomas and John Thomas; daughters, Earleen Simunovich, Marie Bessemer and Diane
Padilla; brothers, Rufus Whiteman and John Whiteman; sisters, Marie Rooney and Pudgie Fowler; 12 grandchildren and 11
great-grandchildren.

Thomas was preceded in death by her husband, Benjamin Thomas.

Jay I. "Jim" Miller

PHOENIX — Services for Jay Miller, 68, will be held at 10 a.m., Tuesday, Jan. 30 at Saint Theresa Parish, 5045 East Thomas
Road, Phoenix. Burial will follow at Saint Francis Cemetery, Phoenix.

Miller died Jan. 23 in Phoenix. He was born Dec. 9, 1932 in Eaton Rapids, Mich.

Miller served in the U.S. Armed Forces, stationed in Heidelberg, Germany. He was employed with the U.S. Postal Service and
where he was appointed Post Master in Window Rock in 1980, and retired in 1992. He moved to Phoenix in 1993, where he was
employed in the private sector.

Survivors include his wife, Wanda Sue (Stubblefield) Miller; daughters, Teresa Christine Miller of Phoenix, Tracey Collen
Dombroski of Paradise Valley and Kimberly Sue Miller of New York City; brother, Dale Miller of Pensacola, Fla.

Miller was preceded in death by his parents, Beulah Agnes and Itha Homer Miller.