Frank & Senona Padilla

Here is a rare picture of my grandparents,
Frank & Senona Padilla. They are my mother's parents.




I never knew my grandfather because he died in 1958. I was a teenager when my grandmother passed away in 1978. I spent a lot of time with her and knew her well. She even lived with us for a short time in Mesa.

Grandma "Dilla" as I called her lived in a small house in Lovell, Wyoming. She was nearly blind in her later years. I remember a time when she swatted a cupcake crumb that I dropped on the table. She thought it was a fly! I said, "Grandma, that's not a fly, it's a crumb!". She couldn't stop laughing.

It was grandma "Dilla" that gave me the puppy I named "Winky". Winky had many puppies of her own while we had her at the farm. Here is a picture of my sister Teresa and I holding one of those pups:




My grandparents were both born in Mexico but immigrated at a young age. They met in Greeley, Colorado where they were married. Sometime after marriage they migrated to Wyoming where there was work.

They raised a large family if 16 children in Lovell. My mom was the 13th! I remember her telling me that her father passed away in their home of a heart attack when she was 15 years old.

I never knew at the time what causes my grandmother died of until later. It is suspected that she had breast cancer. My mother died of breast cancer as well. I do remember that she died in 1978, the same year my uncle Mark was killed in a plane crash and my uncle Larry died in a helicopter crash on South Mountain in Phoenix. That was a bad year.

My grandfather apparently was born to a different sir name than "Padilla". He apparently changed his name when he came to the U.S. I do not know why for sure. I think that I was told that he actually swam across the Rio Grand River when he crossed the border.

I've heard stories of him running from the infamous Pancho Via. I couldn't tell the story without being reminded of the facts. My dad would probably remember.

I have been searching for his original last name for many years. We've reached a dead end with his genealogy without the correct last name. Perhaps someone reading this can help.

Ike