Juana Maria McKenna Gomez passed away peacefully on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021, in her home, surrounded by family. She was 90 years old.
Juana “Jennie” was born in Middle Water, Texas, on Nov. 27, 1930, to William and Inez Lopez McKenna. Her father worked for the Santa Fe Railroad, so the story is told that she was born at home. As children, we believed that she was born in a caboose.
Jennie’s family made their way to Wilmington, Calif., where she was the fifth of 13 children. She graduated from Banning High School and began to work as a bookkeeper for a dry cleaning company. She spent weekends going to dances with her friends and eventually met her future husband, Richard H. Gomez, and they married in August 1956 at Holy Family Catholic Church in Wilmington and lived in San Pedro. Before her children were born, she would make retreats with the Carmelite Sisters of Alhambra, which began a lifelong admiration for the Carmelites.