Florentino Pacheco Jr., of Deming, known to his friends as Lilo, passed away November 24, 2023, in Las Cruces. He was 99 and would have been 100 in six months. In his later years, he kept saying that he would live to be 100, and he nearly made it.
He was born on May 19, 1924, in Deming to a family which included 11 siblings. With his death, only his brother, Sammy, in Arizona, remains of those brothers and sisters.
Florentino made his living walking the mountains of Luna County and the surrounding area, locating rock and mineral deposits, staking claim to the deposits, and either working those claims or selling the rights to them to other people or companies. He was an expert when it came to rocks and minerals in the area. He loved even in his older years to go for walks out in the mountains.
He had a sense of humor as well. Once, on a rock-hunting excursion, a family member found some red rocks and wondered what they might be. “Leaverite,” was Lilo’s answer. “Leave ‘er right there,” he said with a chuckle.
He loved his home and his family that he moved twice. The first time was right across the street from his parents. The second move was just half a block away from his parents where he built the family home.
Lilo enlisted in the Army in 1943 and earned honors as a rifleman. He also was a member of the 101st Airborne Division, known as the Screaming Eagles. After World War II, he joined the New Mexico National Guard from 1946-1952 during the Korean War Conflict.
Lilo was the grand marshal of the 2015 Fourth of July parade in Deming.
He was proud of the fact that his great-great-great-grandfather, Yrineo Pacheco, in 1848 was the one to raise the U.S. flag in Mesilla, N.M., when the United States took possession of the Rio Grande Valley as a result of the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo.
He had obtained his pilot’s license in the 1950s and flew planes over New Mexico. He flew again at age 92 when Deming pilot Robert Benavidez took him up in a Cessna 182.
Lilo was preceded in death by his wife, Juanita, and his son, Sammy, nine brothers and sisters and his parents, Florentino and Fina Carbajal Pacheco.
He is survived by three daughters: Mary Frances Leupold (Wayne) of Farmington, Melissa Daniels (Mike) of Vallecito, Colo., and Marge Smelser of Las Cruces. He had six grandchildren: Penny Brown of Provo, Utah, and Amy Leupold of Farmington; Heather Forseman of Cortez, Colo., and Mikey Daniels of Grand Junction, Colo., and Amber and Jarrett Smelser of Las Cruces. He is survived by six great-grandchildren: Parker and Jocelyn Brown of Provo, Aubrieana and Ashlynn Huwe of Cortez, Colo., and Micheal and Jace Daniels of Grand Junction.
Pallbearers will be Andy Pacheco, Scott Chandler, Frank Brown, Mike Daniels, Jesse Rouse and Wayne Leupold.
Visitation will take place at Baca’s Funeral Chapels Wednesday, November 29, 2023 at 4 o’clock in the afternoon with the recitation of the Holy Rosary at 6 o’clock in the evening led by Suzanne Lundy. Mass of the Christian Burial Thursday, November 30, 2023 at Saint Ann’s Catholic Church with interment to follow at Mountain View Cemetery with Fr. Aloysius Orekie officiating.
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