Josephina Calzada (nee Chavez), 81, of Brookfield, died on Jan. 28, 2011, at Elmhurst Hospital of complications from heart failure and a stroke which affected her health in the summer of 2010.
She was born in Chicago on Feb. 12, 1929 to Jesus and Isabella Chavez. Her parents came from Mexico to work on a farm in Santa Fe, N.M. They moved to the Southeast Side of Chicago, where Josephina was born several years later, in 1921.
Mrs. Calzada married Enrique Calzada Sr., a U.S. Army veteran, in 1946 in El Paso, Texas. Returning to Chicago in the 1967, she worked for Chicago Clock Company, located in the Hegewisch neighborhood of Chicago, for 20 years.
She was an active member of the Riverside-based PeopleCare program for almost 10 years.
Mrs. Calzada was preceded in death by her husband and her son, Enrique “Kiki” Calzada Jr., a CTA driver killed in a bus accident in November 2006. She is survived by her sons, Daniel Calzada, of Chicago, and Robert Chavez, of Pasadena, Calif.; her stepsister, Esperanza Chavez of Los Angeles; her daughter-in-law, Mary Dombrowski Calzada, of Brookfield; two grandchildren; and one great grandchild.
No funeral services were held on her son Daniel’s request. A memorial service to celebrate her life and the spreading of ashes is planned sometime later in the late spring of 2011.
