Maria Josefina Castano

Weslaco- Maria Josefina Penilla Lozano de Castano, 96 of Weslaco, TX entered into eternal rest on April 15, 2014. She was born in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico to Librado Penilla Rizzo of Arandas, Jalisco, Mexico and Nicolasa Lozano Ayala of Santa Rosa, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.
Maria Josefina was educated in the Salesian’s School of Maria Auxiliadora in Monterrey, Mexico and finished her business education at a local business academy in which she excelled in all her studies. She aspired to be a teacher. In the following years, she met and married her husband, Magdaleno and were married for 69 ½ years. They lived in Donna, Corpus Christi, Chicago, IL and retired in Weslaco where they lived for the past 25 years.
Through the years, Maria Josefina held many jobs and positions from housekeeper and cook at Sacred Heart Church in Corpus Christi to factory work with Chicago Rawhide Company, Steward-Warner, Victor Comptometer and various positions with the U.S. Post Office and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, while taking care of her family too.
She is preceded in death by her husband, Magdaleno Castano; her parents; and her brothers, Ramon, Roberto and Tiburcio Penilla. She is survived by her loving daughters, Mary Lou Leal (Juan D. +), Mary Esther Campos (Carmelo) and Christina E. Eilers (Wayne); grandsons, John M. Leal, James N. Campos (Sylvia), Clinton and Matthew Eilers; great granddaughter, Valerie Campos; along with many nieces and nephews in Mexico, Texas, California and many friends and compadres in Chicago, IL and the Rio Grande Valley.
Maria Josefina was a visionary, a dreamer and a doer who encouraged her family to work hard, strive and reach for the stars; a woman ahead of her time, unafraid to take the lead to make a better life for her family. She taught and shared her Catholic faith with an exemplary life for which her family will always love, admire and remember her.
Visitation will be held on Monday, April 21, 2014 from 10:00 am to 9:00 pm with a rosary at 7:00 pm at McCaleb Funeral Home in Weslaco. A funeral Mass will be celebrated on Tuesday, April 22, 2014 at 10:00 am at St. Pius X Catholic Church in Weslaco. Interment will follow at Val Verde Memorial Gardens in Donna. Sign the online guestbook at http://www.mccalebfuneralhome.com/.