Iyla M Rodriguez's Obituary
Iyla Mae Rodriquez born July 14, 1923 in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan to Fred Mitchell & Majul Bowker, peacefully passed away on April 8, 2017.In her early years, Iyla lived in South Dakota and went to Fort Wingate Navajo boarding school in New Mexico where she met many of her lifetime good friends. Later, Iyla put herself through Haskell Indian Nations University In Lawrence, Kansas.After Haskell where she would master her secretarial skills and later become a highly respected & devoted employee of the Department of Defense, she moved to Seattle where she worked for Boeing in the shipyards as a ‘Rosie the Riveter’. Her petite figure enabled her to fit into wings of the B-17 bombers to drive those rivets.In 1945, not too long after establishing her grounds here in San Francisco, Iyla Mae met & married Ron Rodriguez and had 3 children. Daughters Kathleen Louise Beecher and Ramona Marie Rodriguez who predeceased her. And surviving son Ron Rodriguez. She also leaves behind 3 grandchildren, Tracy, Troy (Kristie) and Rick Beecher.After twenty years as a faithful Federal employee, Iyla made the hard decision to retire. However everyone knew Iyla couldn’t sit around and do nothing for long. So with that said, she let her own illnesses become her strength to give back to others. After being diagnosed with breast cancer, diabetes, arthritis as well as having heart issues she found herself visiting Kaiser Hospital more frequently than she would like. Therefore she actually said,” Well shit, I’m already here I might as well make myself useful and volunteer.” And that she did! Iyla became a highly respected and loved volunteer at Kaiser Hospital of South San Francisco and contributed over 5000 hours of her life to helping others. It wasn’t until close to the end of her journey in life when she realized she had to now put herself & her health first. That was not an easy task for Iyla at all. She was always able to do everything on her own which is exactly what made her such a strong woman right up until the very end. She never let anyone hold her back in life. We never met a stronger woman in our lives. Someone that could overcome all life has thrown at her and still held her head high. We will forever be honored to be a part of her strong bloodline and to call her our Grams.Donation in Iylas name can be made at http://www.diabetes.org/ or http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/
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