Marilou Garcia

Marilou Garcia passed away on February 2, 2017.  She was born in Brussels, Belgium on June 10, 1929, the only child of Joseph E. Smolders and his wife Maria Mangon.  Marilou obtained her degree in accounting from the University of Marseille, France.  Upon her return to Belgium, she started working as the chief accountant for the British Chamber of Commerce until her departure for the U.S. and New Mexico in 1953, to meet a pen pal with whom she had corresponded since High School.  Marilou fell in love with New Mexico and obtained her citizenship in Santa Fe in 1959.  Upon arrival, she worked as the accountant for Dale Bellamah Enterprises and then as a tax accountant for the then Peat, Marwick, Mitchell (now KPMG), from there she worked as the Internal Auditor for APS until her retirement in 1989.  Marilou and her husband Frank Garcia, whom she married on April 1, 1960 at the Church of the Madeline in Paris, France, did not have children and loved to travel.  When they were working they used to travel twice a year with their dog in their station wagon. They visited every one of the 48 states of the main land, their dog swam in the Gulf, the Atlantic and the Pacific and loved to travel as much as they did.  Later, when they lost the dog and did not work any longer, they started to travel through the World, visiting Alaska, Hawaii and all 5 continents.  Their favorite vacations were cruises.  Since a very young age Marilou had gone on several cruises with her mother and later continued to cruise with her husband for a total of 31 cruises.  Although her pen pal Barbara left New Mexico in the 60’s and moved to the east coast, Marilou stayed very close to her and her 2 daughters and she loved her as the sister she never had. Marilou will be truly missed by all who knew and loved dearly.

A rosary and Catholic service will begin on Monday, February 6th at 9:00 AM at the chapel of the Daniels Family Funeral Services, 7601 Wyoming Blvd. NE, followed by interment at Mount Calvary Cemetery in the family plot.  
In lieu of flowers, a donation should be made in Marilou’s name to one of her favorite charities (Paralyzed Veterans of America, ASPCA) or to the charity of your choice.