Eva Ruby Saucedo

Eva Ruby Saucedo 1933 – January 5, 2026 | San Antonio, Texas

Rosary will be said at 6:00 P.M., Tuesday, January 13, 2026, in the Boxwell Brothers Ivy Chapel, 2800 Paramount Blvd. Mass will be at 11:00 A.M., Wednesday, January 14, 2026, at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, 1210 SE 11th Ave., Amarillo, Texas 79102.

Eva Ruby Saucedo—known to nearly everyone as “Granny”—passed away peacefully on January 5, 2026, in San Antonio, Texas, at the age of 92. Born in 1933 in Mosquero, New Mexico, Ruby’s life began with modest means and a corazón fuerte that carried her through nearly a century of love, laughter, and perseverance.

As a small child, Ruby moved with her mother, Catalina Chavez Gutierrez, and stepfather to Amarillo, Texas, where she would grow up and spend much of her adult life. Her stepfather, Pablo Salgado, was a steady and kind presence in her early years. Ruby’s formal education ended after the eighth grade, but life became her classroom. She often remembered standing on a chair as a young girl to reach the stove—peeling potatoes, cooking with what little was available, learning early how to cuidar a los suyos.

Ruby was a lifelong provider and caretaker. She worked in school cafeterias and later as a dietitian, including at James Bowie Middle School and Northwest Texas Hospital, drawn to work rooted in nourishment and routine. Food was never just food to Ruby—it was memory, comfort, and cariño made tangible. Her famous cornbread dressing, prepared faithfully every Thanksgiving, was legendary—rich, savory, and unmistakably hers. No holiday felt complete without it.

Granny was a spitfire. A force. She was always looking to live in love. She married three times over the years, each time loving deeply. She lived life entirely on her own terms—unapologetically, sometimes unconventionally, and always honestly. She married Pete Escoto, later Mercedes Rodriguez, and finally Urbano “Bourbon” Saucedo, the love of her life—her best dancer, her best match, bien parejitos, the kind of companionship that made her feel like she was exactly where she was meant to be.

In her later years, Ruby made her home in San Antonio, living independently in a small casita on the west side of town, in an old Mexican barrio that still knew how to live like family. In barrios, windows stay open. Voices carry. Neighbors call out—¿Cómo está, comadre? Ruby belonged there. Her window was always open—not as a place of waiting, but as a puente. Friends stopped by. Neighbors checked in. Conversation drifted in with the breeze, and no one was ever a stranger for long.

Ruby loved music and dancing all her life. From a small radio on her windowsill, the music of Emilio Navaira, Ruben Ramos, and Little Joe often played. She was a Tejano woman through and through, happiest in her western wear—jeans and boots, hair done just right—ready to dance the night away. She also loved reading, shopping estate sales and antique stores, and repurposing old items, finding beauty where others might not. She enjoyed the thrill of the maquinitas, traveling throughout Texas visiting casinos, laughing, playing, and savoring the adventure. Le gustaba la vida.

A practicing Catholic, Ruby attended The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Little Flower in San Antonio, where she found comfort in prayer, tradition, and quiet moments of reflection. That same devotion and tenderness shaped the way she loved her animals—especially her beloved rescue dog, Sammy, her constant companion in her final years. He slept beside her, followed her everywhere, and was loved como familia.

As the Mexican-American author Sandra Cisneros once wrote in The House on Mango Street, “She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow,” a metaphor for lives watched and longed for rather than lived from within. Ruby did not sit with her sadness. She met the world with open windows, open arms, and an open heart.

Ruby is survived by her children, Gloria Castillo, Juan Escoto, Gabriel Escoto, Mariana Salgado, Ramona Delgado, and Diana Cox; her brother, Florentino Chavez Gutierrez; her niece, Victoria J. Gutierrez Vasquez; 17 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren, and 2 great-great-grandchildren; along with extended family, neighbors, and friends who loved her dearly.

She is preceded in death by her husband, Urbano “Bourbon” Saucedo; her former spouses, Pete Escoto, and Mercedes Rodriguez; her sons, Ruben Delfino Escoto, and Mariano Escoto; her mother, Catalina Chavez Gutierrez; her stepfather, Pablo Salgado; and her brothers, Ramon Chavez Gutierrez, and Joe John Gutierrez.

Memorial donations may be made in Ruby’s honor to the San Antonio Humane Society.

“When we dropped her off that winter back in her barrio in San Antonio, doors opened. Windows lifted. Voices called out, ‘Welcome home, Ruby.’

And now, I imagine her being greeted again, by family long gone and by beloved pets waiting faithfully, hearing once more, ‘Welcome home, Ruby. You are home now.’”