Esther Antoinette Escobar

Esther Antoinette Rodriguez Escobar, 85, died of heart failure on August 2, 2024, at her assisted living apartment in Aurora, CO. She had gotten up early that morning, dressed and sat down next to her husband to eat breakfast. Esther was sitting in a chair watching TV when she simply stopped breathing. She appeared to have fallen asleep calmly and peacefully. Her passing was discovered when a staff member came into the room to remove the breakfast dishes.

Esther was born on August 22, 1938, in Brooklyn, NY, to Francisco Rodriguez and Antonia Ortiz Rodriguez, both of Ponce, Puerto Rico. She was the ninth of 10 children, the youngest of four girls.

Family has always been everything to Esther. She spent almost her entire life living near and interacting with her brothers, sisters and extended family members. One early exception was when she was diagnosed with tuberculosis at the age of 9 and was sent to a sanitorium in Upstate New York for 18 months.

Esther spoke about how this was a very lonely time for her and how desperately she looked forward to the once-monthly visits from her parents, who would spend an entire day with her on the grounds. One highlight was becoming good friends with a fellow patient named Brenda Starr (like the popular comic strip character at the time).

At age 14, Esther traveled from New York to Southern California, staying two years with her oldest brother, Bill, and youngest brother, Ralph. She returned home to New York at age 16, when she met her future husband, Julio Escobar, at a candy store in Brooklyn.

They were married In June 1957 when she was 18 and he was 24. They initially lived with his parents until they found an apartment of their own. Julio worked at numerous jobs until finding work with the US Postal Service, which he kept until he retired. Esther first worked in the Garment District and then at several commercial banks on Wall Street.

Four years later, they welcomed their son, John, into the world, working different shifts to share parenting duties.

In 1963, the family moved to the projects in the East New York neighborhood in Brooklyn, living on the top floor. Esther enjoyed the convenience of walking John to school, which was just a few blocks from the apartment. (She did not, however, enjoy carrying John up the six flights of stairs when the elevators were out of service.)

Several years later, on the cold, snowy New Year’s Eve of 1967, Esther and her sister Frances decided that life would be much better in sunny Southern California, where most of their other siblings had already relocated. On Feb. 2, 1968, the two mothers and their five children boarded a plane to Los Angeles. Esther and John moved in with brother Tony and his wife Peggy in Lakewood; Frances and her four children moved in with brother George and his wife Susie in Cypress. Their husbands followed a few months later.

After living with family for six months, Esther and Julio were able to save money and, with the help of the GI Bill, make a down payment on a newly constructed home in the rapidly expanding community of Cerritos, CA. Esther was extremely proud of achieving the goal of homeownership and gladly opened her home to other family members moving from New York to California.

Esther worked at the Veteran’s Administration in Long Beach, CA, starting in the mail room before becoming a clerk typist. She was there until 1973, when she suffered a workplace injury that required back surgery and unfortunately affected her mobility for the remainder of her life.

Meanwhile, Esther’s extended family had grown significantly. The 10 siblings, most living within a few miles of each other in Southern California, were now parents of 36 children. As the children grew into adults, some of the siblings decided to move inland to Riverside County. In 1989, Esther and Julio joined them. Esther, brother Richard and sister Frances all purchased new homes just a few blocks from each other in Sun City, CA. Brother Frank followed a few years later, buying a home less than a mile away.

In addition to being close to family, Esther took advantage of another benefit of living in Sun City: proximity to the Pechanga and Pala Indian casinos.

Esther, like most of her siblings, enjoyed gambling. She grew up playing dominos, dice and cards with her father and brothers Tony, George and Ralph (Cookie), and this activity continued throughout their lives. Especially in their 30s, 40s and 50s, the siblings (and, while he was alive, their father) often stayed up until dawn playing games and spending time together at one or the other’s home. When not at home, they would good-naturedly bet on random events like which elevator would arrive first or whether one random stranger would speak to another random stranger.

Esther also enjoyed travel though didn’t engage in it as often as she would have liked. She toured Europe in 1982 with family members John, Richard (Duckie) and Letty Gutierrez. She also traveled with her father to Puerto Rico to visit family several times; took frequent trips to Las Vegas to gamble and spend time with family living there; and vacationed two weeks in Puerto Rico and another two weeks in Cabo San Lucas with son John and son-in-law Marty.

Esther also spent countless hours sharing her son John’s love of movies. During his teen years and beyond, the two traveled often to Hollywood to watch classic movies in revival movie houses and purchase movie memorabilia, including posters, photos and costumes. Later, Esther was a regular attendee at John and Marty’s home theater in Menifee, CA. She often said that her greatest joy in life was being a mother.

Esther was diagnosed with dementia and the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s in 2019 and found it increasingly difficult to manage activities of daily life. She and Julio entered an assisted living facility in Corona, CA, in January 2023, after both suffered falls and illnesses. When their physical health continued to deteriorate, their son and son-in-law moved them to Colorado to better manage their need for higher levels of care.

Esther is survived by her son, John Escobar, and son-in-law, Martin Dee, of Denver, CO; two sisters, Jennie (Juanita) Palacios of Cerritos, CA, and Frances Martinez of Temecula, CA; one brother, George Rodriguez of Las Vegas, NV; one sister-in-law, Carmen Rodriguez of Lakewood, CA; 32 nephews and nieces; countless great-nephews and great-nieces; and her husband, Julio Escobar of Aurora, CO.

A memorial service will be held at Fort Logan National Cemetery on September 20, 2024, at 2:00 p.m., with a private reception for family members following.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her name to the Alzheimer's Association or American Heart Association.