Jose "Joe" Saucedo

Joe Saucedo was born in Brawley, California on December 15, 1929. He passed away at age 86 on April 14, 2016 at his family home in Whittier. He had kidney disease that needed dialysis. Unknowingly, the kidney disease progressed to cancer that spread throughout his abdomen and lungs. Joe was a family man who was a storyteller with an amazing memory. Everyone he met he considered his friend. He had a strong will and determined spirit that helped him throughout his life, from overcoming a poor upbringing to the loss of his first wife to many health scares. Joe's life was filled with family, friends, career, church, and a good retirement.



Joe's mother Georgia passed away in her 90s and his father Julian died young (alcoholic).



Joe had 8 siblings. He was preceded in death by Carol (Martinez) (10 children) and Lupe (12 children). He is survived by brothers Tony, Julian, Valentine (3 children), and John Saucedo (3 children), and his sisters Lucy (Segura) (3 children) and Isabel (Escobedo) (3 children). There are a total of 34 nephews and nieces.



Joe was married in 1957 to Eva Ybarra. They were married 17 years and had two children, Jacquie (1963) and Joseph (1966). Eva contracted cancer and passed away in 1974.



Joe remarried to Janet Croffoot in 1975. They had two daughters, Jennifer (1976) and Jeri (1979).



Joe had four grandsons, Caleb, Joshua, Nathan, and Isaiah, from daughter Jacquie and son-in-law Daniel Pearson (deceased).



CAREER

As a child (1930s) Joe remembered working with his dad to fill his truck with produce for selling. He also said the family went to Northern California at harvesting time to work in the fields. As a teen Joe worked for Sears and Roebuck in Los Angeles.



Joe's most impressionable time in life was his time in the Army. He was in the Army from 1948-1952. He was stationed in Japan, and was with the first troops sent to Korea during the war. When he came back to the United States he was stationed in Nevada during the military's early atomic testing. He finished his military career as a sergeant in Seattle.



After the military Joe worked for Rockwell International in Downey. He was hired in 1952 and retired 39 years later in 1992. He was a metallurgist and his position was in heat treating. He worked with large ovens and heat treated parts for the NASA Space Program, including space shuttles.



RETIREMENT YEARS

Joe retired in 1992. He spent his time mainly at home. He chose to volunteer with a prison ministry outreach that went to the Fred C. Nelles School in Whittier, a correctional school for juvenile offenders. He also helped to deliver food to the needy in his van because he said he knew what it was to be poor. This led to his helping migrant workers. Joe began to fill his van with food and drinks semi-weekly. He would deliver the food to poor migrants around Whittier and La Habra. Then during the year in his garage he began to save up and create hygiene packets to pass out at Christmas. He continued this until he no longer could in 2015.



SPIRITUAL LIFE

Joe knew of God at an early age through his family being Catholic. As an adult he became a Christian and attended church in East Los Angeles. Later he and his wife Eva went to East Whittier Baptist Church in the 1970s. He relied on church, family and friends to help him through the loss of Eva and the transition to a new marriage and family. In the 1980s East Whittier Baptist Church was a close-knit group of families who were active in each other's lives. They would vacation together each summer camping at Hume Lake. Later Joe transitioned to Redemption Hills Church (formerly Whittier Hills Baptist Church), where he was a long-time member of the senior Sunday school class. As he aged Joe had poor eyesight, but he would write notes and study the Bible in the evenings. He always felt that he had had the experience of God talking to him.



HEALTH

Joe had many health scares throughout life. As a child he caught his hair on fire with a kerosene lamp. His family turned him upside down, dipping him in a bucket of water several times to extinguish the fire. Another time he was knocked unconscious for several days by an axe handle that came loose as he swung.



After the military he had appendicitis and was very sick. He also attributed some of his health issues to his time spent in Nevada at a military testing site. Joe witnessed radioactive tests, and afterwards he said his body would swell daily. His face, mouth, and feet would swell, and he developed several allergies. He was afraid of these effects, and so waited to have children. Later in 1980 he experienced a heart attack. Joe had heart disease, and in 1999 had quintuple bypass surgery after a second heart attack.



Joe had poor eyesight as well. He lost sight in his right eye and had partial vision in the left. Then in 2007 he needed to start dialysis and had a shunt placed in his arm. He went to dialysis three times per week. Joe also had reflux; the muscles connecting his diaphragm and stomach didn't close properly. He gradually became weaker after 8 years of dialysis. Further complicating his health in the spring of 2015 he had a compressed disc in his back. On April 11, 2016 when he was too weak to walk with help, he was taken to the hospital. Joe was diagnosed with cancer masses in his lungs and abdomen, which had spread from his kidneys. He was sent home from the hospital on hospice, and passed away the next day on April 14.



DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS OF JOE

When thinking of Joe, there is consensus among family and friends. He was known for playing guitar, having a Dodger blue 1977 Chevrolet van, his work with space shuttles, and his love of Los Angeles.



VAN

Joe was proud of the Chevrolet van that had been bought new in 1977 and he kept up the engine and paint for nearly four decades. He drove the van until he hurt his back in 2015. In the 1980s the family went camping and traveled every summer in the van. Once retired, Joe drove the van everywhere. He used it to volunteer, then to bring food to migrants. The men knew his van and would come running when they saw it. He was once featured in the Whittier Daily News with the van as he handed out food. He wouldn't give up driving even with failing health. It meant a lot to remain independent.



GUITAR

Joe always had his guitar close by. He would pick it up regularly to sing songs that he wrote for the family and his favorite hymns. Joe made up songs about his kids when they were little, and sang hymns to help him through hard times. He was eager to sing for any visitor.



SPACE

Joe was always proud of his career in the aerospace industry. His work at Rockwell International spanned from the Apollo missions to the space shuttles in the 1980s. He worked on the first F86 Super Saber airplane as well as the shuttle that first took man to the moon. He also worked on the X-15, the first ship to go to outer space before going to the moon.



LOS ANGELES

Joe lived his whole life in Los Angeles and loved the city. He had early memories of the 1932 Los Angeles earthquake as well as the Olympics. Joe wrote that he lived on Croesus Ave between 107th Street and Santa Ana Ave in Watts. He was always the last person home on the block. The Ringling Bros. Circus would parade through town and set up nearby. Later Joe wrote that the church built a bazaar in his area La Colonia. During the summers there was music, games, lottery, and a lot of food.



Joe attended 102nd Street School and Jordan Junior and High School. (He remembered not having money to buy a graduation gown or clothes.)



Joe wrote that Watts had good transportation. He rode the street car both rapid and local. All the movies played in Los Angeles and he frequented the Largo. He wrote, 'as a teenager Long beach was the place to go. It was a 40 minute ride and cost .35....The Watts towers were nearby.'



After his time in the army (1950s) Joe wrote that he 'partied with his cousin and friends.' They went to football games, plays, dances, and saw big band and jazz concerts. He knew all the downtown streets and venues from memory.