Northern New Mexico saw the loss in 2025 of Hollywood giants Gene Hackman, Robert Redford and Val Kilmer.
It bid farewell to Joe Dudziak, a tireless advocate for Santa Fe’s homeless; Florence Jaramillo, the matriarch of El Rancho de Chimayó; Jason Abeyta, the longtime boys basketball coach at Santa Fe Indian School and his brother Nathan, the school’s assistant athletic director.
Many other longtime residents who died in 2025 also made their mark: military veterans, including some of the last living survivors of the Bataan Death March, as well as beloved educators, journalists, activists and artists. Here are their stories.
Linda Larkin, a Santa Fe harpist who performed for and taught many, died of cancer Jan. 10.
Linda Larkin, 87, Jan. 10: A local harpist, Larkin spent her life wowing people with her musical ability.
As a composer, Larkin wrote collections of original music that have been played around the world. A member of the Presbyterian Church of Santa Fe, she also wrote collections of meditative chants that ministers could use to accompany their sermons.
For Larkin, who died after a battle with cancer, the harp was a tool for teaching as much as performing. She taught for many years as a private instructor, public workshop presenter and as director of the Santa Fe High Desert Harp Ensemble.
Marg VeneKlasen died in January at 97 years old.
Marg VeneKlasen, 97, Jan. 22: For VeneKlasen, who loved singing, dancing and people-watching over a margarita, any location was a chance to perform: The deli counter was asking for a dance. The middle of the street was crying out for a song.
She was a matriarch, entrepreneur and advocate for women’s sports and leadership who founded the Northern New Mexico Soccer Club in 1975 and started a program introducing public school kids to skiing.
“I ended up becoming a feminist and doing that as my life’s work because of her,” daughter Lisa VeneKlasen said. “It was to go from embarrassment at how outspoken she was to the realization that we all have to be that bold.”
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, 85, Jan. 24: Smith was a prolific visual artist and curator based in Corrales and the first Native American artist to curate an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Smith, who died after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer, also was the first Native American artist to have a retrospective show at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Smith had a difficult childhood but became enamored by art in primary school, she recounted in 2023. Painting and drawing, she said, was “like, an elixir. It was like … paradise for me.”
Robert “Mo” Morehead, 77, Jan. 24: Morehead, who was killed in a car crash on the south side of Santa Fe, was a journalist and advertising professional who for years sought to contribute to several different communities he called home in both Texas and New Mexico.
His career included working as a writer for the Wall Street Journal and co-founding an advertising agency in Corpus Christi, Texas. Some who knew him remembered him as a man who was always concerned about the welfare of others.
Fellow Rotarian Kerry Quinn called Morehead a “service-oriented individual.”
Morehead was serving as the secretary of the Rotary Club of Santa Fe and contributed graphic design work for many of the group’s events, such as Pancakes on the Plaza and the club’s centennial celebration in 2024, Quinn said.
Ken Mayers, second from right, flashes a peace sign to motorists on Cerrillos Road in 2019 alongside other activists in support of Veterans for Peace.
Ken Mayers, 88, Jan. 27: Mayers, a Vietnam War veteran who founded the Santa Fe chapter of Veterans for Peace, was protesting well into his 80s. He was arrested, along with friend Tarak Kauff, in 2019 for trespassing on an Irish airfield.
The pair, both members of the anti-war nonprofit Veterans for Peace, traveled the world together, from Japan to South Korea to the Palestinian territories — and often performed a little civil disobedience along the way.
The arrest in Ireland wasn’t Mayers’ first. He was arrested while protesting the war in Afghanistan in New York City and faced down tear gas and rubber bullets during a 2013 visit to the Palestinian West Bank village of Bil’in.
“Ken was basically fearless in his own quiet way,” Kauff said. “I never saw him afraid of anything.”
Steve Leger
Steve Leger, 71, Feb. 6: Through spontaneous trumpet and flute performances, ownership of the Love Musica music store in his hometown of Las Vegas, N.M., and tours across the country with bands like Cascabel, The Drifters and Santa Fe Plaza bandstand staple Los Tropicales, it was musician Leger’s nature to share his talents with those who crossed his path.
“Everywhere he went, he went with that flute or trumpet,” said Leger’s sister, U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández.
Leger, who died of a heart attack, wasn’t special just because of his expertise, the congresswoman said. It was also because of his “goodness” and propensity for sharing.
Santa Fe artist Helen Schreider is shown with her painting of Georgia O’Keeffe. Schreider died Feb. 6. Courtesy of Camille Armstrong
Helen Schreider, 98, Feb. 6: Schreider, an artist and explorer who died following a stroke, spent years traveling the globe, including multiple expeditions on assignment for National Geographic. She spent more than 30 years in Santa Fe and retired here.
While here, she had a memorable interview with Georgia O’Keeffe. And it was in Santa Fe in 2015 when she received a long-overdue honor: induction into the prestigious Explorers Club. After a groundbreaking Pan-American trip in the 1950s, her then-husband Frank Schreider had been granted entry to the club, but women were not allowed membership into its ranks until 1981.
The couple, who later divorced but continued working together, coauthored the book 20,000 Miles South.
Actor Gene Hackman arrives with his wife, Betsy Arakawa, for the 60th Annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Jan. 19, 2003, where he would receive the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Cecil B deMille Award for outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment.
Gene Hackman, 95, and Betsy Arakawa Hackman, 65, mid-February: The world’s shocked attention was brought to Santa Fe when acclaimed actor and longtime local resident Hackman and his wife, Betsy, were found dead in their home off Hyde Park Road.
It was later determined Arakawa had died from hantavirus while Hackman, who was suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s disease, died about a week later from heart disease complications.
Santa Feans who knew the couple remembered them as unpretentious but friendly people who invested in local ventures and were frequently spotted out and about downtown. Hackman was on the board of trustees of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum from its opening in 1997 to 2004 and played “a vital role in shaping the museum’s early years,” according to museum officials.
Although they largely kept to themselves for the last few years of their lives, in earlier years Hackman was a frequent subject of The New Mexican‘s former celebrity-sighting El Mitote column. They were also involved in the local business community.
“They helped create memories and experiences that have been enjoyed by millions of residents and visitors … while asking for little in return,” said Santa Fe businessman and restaurateur Brian Knox.
Arthur Firstenberg, 74, Feb. 25: A Santa Fe resident who gained national notoriety as an outspoken opponent of wireless technology, Firstenberg, who died from a monthslong illness, is perhaps best known for suing a former neighbor in 2010, maintaining electromagnetic radiation emitted by her cellphone negatively impacted his health.
The lawsuit was covered by national media outlets that scrutinized his assertions about the technology.
“He was highly intelligent, and he was deeply concerned about people’s health and well-being,” said William Bruno, a friend and former scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Vicente Jimenez, 99, Feb. 25: Vicente Jimenez’s Marine dress jacket was adorned with dozens of ribbons and a half-dozen medals — but he wouldn’t talk about them.
“I went out to fight for my country, not win goddamn medals,” Jimenez said in 2018. The decorated and often-celebrated Tesuque veteran served in three branches of the military and braved World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
After a difficult childhood, he joined the Navy in 1943 at age 17. He worked as a cook and eventually took part in sea campaigns in and around the Marshall Islands and Iwo Jima.
After being shipped home from the Navy in 1946, Jimenez had a short stint as a civilian before joining the Army in August 1948. He was discharged in June 1952, then joined the Marines the next month. He finally called it quits in 1965 after more than 20 years of service.
Mary Francis Polanco, 86, March 7: Polanco, a member of the Jicarilla Apache Nation who founded the Jicarilla Chieftain in 1962 and served as its editor-in-chief for more than 40 years, died in her sleep.
The lifelong journalist was among about two dozen Native Americans who gathered in 1983 to form the Native American Journalists Association, renamed the Indigenous Journalists Association in 2023. She was elected the association’s first treasurer.
She also served as president of the Dulce school board and the Northern New Mexico Community College board. And she served on the advisory councils of the New Mexico State Parks and Recreation Division and the Jicarilla Apache Reformed Church consistory.
Harley Glen Smith, 75, March 24: Smith, who was fatally struck by a city vehicle while waiting for a bus outside a south-side mall, was a lover of music, art and fine antiques who had called the City Different home for most of his life.
One of the many characters in the colorful cast of Santa Fe’s arts world, Smith worked as an appraiser at Stephen’s A Consignment Gallery. The store’s owner, Stephen Etre, said Smith had worked at the shop for about 39 years, including as a partner.
A staunch supporter of public transit, Smith had not owned a vehicle in at least a decade before his tragic death.
Bill O’Neill, former senator, author and poet, looks through his book of poetry The Freedom of the Ignored at Collected Works on Feb. 20. O’Neill died March 31.
Bill O’Neill, 68, March 31: Born in rural Ohio, Bill O’Neill’s path to New Mexico politics was a winding one.
As he told Pasatiempo’s Ania Hull in 2024, that path involved stints playing football at Cornell University, working on an asphalt crew, hopping freight trains in Montana and, ultimately, serving Albuquerque’s incarcerated and homeless populations.
O’Neill, a Democrat, served Albuquerque’s North Valley in the state House of Representatives from 2009 to 2013 and in the state Senate from 2013 through 2024. He was also a published poet, novelist and playwright. He died after a long battle with cancer.
Actor Val Kilmer signs autographs for young fans during a silent auction and dinner benefit for Pecos Elementary School art programs in 2004. Kilmer died April 1 at age 65.
Val Kilmer, 65, April 1: The actor, whose iconic roles included Iceman in Top Gun, Jim Morrison in The Doors and Doc Holliday in Tombstone, lived in the Land of Enchantment for nearly two decades, first at a ranch in Tesuque and then on a nearly 6,000-acre ranch along the Pecos River.
Nani Rivera, executive director of the Santa Fe Film Festival, which recognized Kilmer with its Luminaria Award last year for his “demonstrated exceptional achievement in the arts,” said Kilmer was instrumental in establishing the state’s film incentive program.
Kilmer was a longtime supporter of the film festival and served as its honorary chairman in 2010.
Rivera said she believes the movie industry in New Mexico wouldn’t be what it is today if it wasn’t for Kilmer, who suffered for years from throat cancer.
Denise Kusel, 82, April 1: A longtime former editor of Pasatiempo and a local columnist, Kusel was a great supporter of Santa Fe’s artistic community.
“She was both fierce and then very kind and funny, which is I think a great combination for an editor,” said Jason Silverman, a former reporter who worked for Kusel in the 1990s. “She wanted the stories to be right and was pretty forceful about that.”
Kusel was known for both her toughness and her humor during her time at The New Mexican in later years as a humor columnist.
She died following years of declining health and an Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis.
Elaine Trujillo, 78, April 11: Whenever another driver was misbehaving on the road, Trujillo would fold her thumb and index finger into a cross and wish them well.
The gesture was typical of Trujillo’s personality: She was always kind, always loving, always generous. “People fell in love with her because she was like this little spark of light,” said her daughter, Bernadette Ellis.
Trujillo, an El Guache native and beloved educator who spent almost 40 years teaching in Santa Fe and other local school districts, died in a car crash on Interstate 25 on her 78th birthday.
Growing up in Louisiana, Dupuy was just 11 or 12 when, according to family lore, he convinced his father to put an antenna on the roof so he could pipe in straight to the neighbors’ radios.
Dupuy, who died following a stroke, landed a job in radio a few years later, and while his career took him from broadcast to the worlds of the military, scientific research and big business, he eventually made a return to the airwaves, moving to Santa Fe in 1999 and taking a job as news director of public radio station KSFR. He retired in 2013.
“It was kind of a … dream role for him,” son Max Dupuy said.
Braves coach Jason Abeyta, center, and his brother Nathan died April 17.
Jason Abeyta, 47, and Nathan Abeyta, 42, April 17: Jason Abeyta was the longtime boys basketball coach at Santa Fe Indian School; his brother Nathan was the assistant athletic director. The brothers, members of Ohkay Owingeh and both graduates of the school, were driving in Rio Arriba County when they were killed in a crash on their way to go fishing.
Nathan Abeyta
“This was just a big loss for everybody because they were people that did a lot of service for kids all around New Mexico,” said Oliver Torres, the school’s head softball coach.
Jason had a very successful coaching career, compiling a 139-104 record in nine-plus seasons. The Braves reached the Class 3A semifinals in four of his last six seasons and played for the 3A state championship in 2019.
Nathan spent the past 13 years in his athletic department post, while Jason became an attendance counselor in 2025.
Billy Merrifield
Billy Merrifield, 50, April 20: Merrifield, who was appointed Rio Arriba County sheriff in 2021 and elected to the post in the 2022 general election, was found dead in his vehicle on Easter Sunday. An investigation would later determine he had died from a drug overdose.
Friends and supporters throughout Northern New Mexico mourned his death.
First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies remembered him as a skilled investigator with a deep commitment to his community.
“Sheriff Merrifield embodied the best of public service,” Carmack-Altwies said in a news release. “We worked well together — with the same goal of making Rio Arriba County a safer place for everyone.”
Kim Shanahan
Kim Shanahan, 68, April 18: The longtime Santa Fe contractor, green building code expert and affordable housing proponent died of a heart attack in Costa Rica, where he and his longtime partner lived for the past few years.
He served for years as executive officer of the Santa Fe Area Home Builders Association, a position he took after serving as the organization’s board president in the early 2000s.
After leaving the association at the end of 2018, Shanahan became a private building sustainability consultant and began writing a weekly column for The New Mexican’s Sunday real estate section.
“He told it straight. When he spoke and he wrote, he didn’t pull any punches,” said Miles Conway, CEO of the New Mexico Home Builders Association. “His voice will be deeply missed.”
Henry Carey
Henry Carey, 76, April 24: Carey founded the Forest Trust in 1984 and helped start the Forest Stewards Guild a decade later. He was also the founding director of the Santa Fe Conservation Trust and the Montaña de Truchas Woodlot. At the time of his death, he served on the board of the Upper Pecos Watershed Association.
Eytan Krasilovsky, deputy director of the Forest Stewards Guild, said Carey’s ideas helped transform the forestry industry, which used to be more focused on commodities and community than conservation.
“Pretty big change happened in the country, and I think Henry’s vision was part of that change,” Krasilovsky said.
Peter Sarkisian, 59, April 26: One of Sarkisian’s most famous artworks starts off as the prototypical mystery: an enormous black box. Images of bodies were projected by video from within its four sides and top, creating an illusion that grabbed viewers’ attention.
The 1998 multimedia piece titled Dusted was the Santa Fe visual artist’s “breakthrough work,” said SITE Santa Fe Executive Director Louis Grachos.
Grachos and others who knew Sarkisian and his work say Dusted was just one example of his ingenuity and innovation in his particular genre of multimedia art.
Sarkisian, who died of unclear medical causes, drew recognition that earned him a number of prestigious exhibition opportunities around the world, as well as at home in New Mexico. But he made the choice to stay in Santa Fe.
John Andrews, 82, May 4: Andrews, a longtime Santa Fe resident and acclaimed Shakespeare scholar who died after a battle with blood cancer, was no lightweight.
He spent years teaching, leading programs at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., and founded and ran The Shakespeare Guild, a nonprofit. During his time in Washington, he edited the Shakespeare Quarterly.
But above all, friends and former colleagues said, Andrews’ desire was to bring the genius of the Bard to life for as many people as possible.
“You’ve got to make the general public realize that Shakespeare isn’t stuffy,” Andrews said in a 1986 story in the Washington Post.
Ralph Vigil Jr., 46, May 16: Vigil was an organizer for New Mexico Wild, a former board member of both the New Mexico Water Trust Board and the Upper Pecos Watershed Association and former chair of the New Mexico Acequia Commission.
He will be remembered as a dogged advocate for clean water, Pecos River protections and a culture of land stewardship.
“I feel like the force of the Pecos River was flowing through Ralph,” said Upper Pecos Watershed Association administrative and communications coordinator Magda Matecka.
Vigil died unexpectedly. A family member said his death could have been associated with a head injury caused by a fall.
George Blue Spruce Jr., 94, June 2: When Blue Spruce Jr. accepted his first postmilitary job practicing dentistry for the Indian Health Service, he found himself in for a rude awakening.
It wasn’t culture shock. He was born to parents from Laguna and Ohkay Owingeh pueblos and was raised on the Santa Fe Indian School campus. But Blue Spruce was used to top-of-the-line equipment and facilities.
“When I got out to all the Indian nations, they had no running water or electricity,” he said in a 2019 interview. “And so I had to beg, borrow and steal from the public schools to be able to practice dentistry.”
Blue Spruce was the first Native American dentist in the U.S. and would go on to work on 14 reservations and pueblos around the country. He transitioned into the administrative side of health care, shaping federal health care policy for tribes.
Allison Jenkins, 46, June 7: A Texas native and 2003 graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, Jenkins helped build Arroyo Vino into one of the Santa Fe area’s more highly regarded eateries.
Jenkins, who died from a pulmonary embolism, was deeply committed to using local ingredients as much as possible, visiting the Santa Fe Farmers Market every Saturday and using only produce grown within 50 miles of Santa Fe.
But her skill as a chef also extended to the areas of hospitality. “There is often an ‘opposing teams’ mentality in the restaurant business,” said Brian Bargsten, the managing partner at Arroyo Vino. “That was never the case with Allison.”
Malcolm Ebright, 93, June 12: Malcolm Ebright moved to New Mexico just a few years after the Tierra Amarilla courthouse raid in 1967. Partly in response, the state Planning Office hired the California-born attorney to conduct a study about the state’s land grant history.
It was a turning point for Ebright, who published his initial findings in 1971 but spent decades immersed in the subject.
Over decades, he wrote multiple books on land and water rights. When the Center for Land Grant Studies was founded, Ebright was identified among the preeminent experts in those topics.
“I consider Malcolm to be the foremost authority on land grants, both to Hispanic and to Native peoples,” said longtime writing partner Rick Hendricks.
Spud Jones, a Navajo bull rider who reached the National Rodeo Finals in 2008, has long inspired and served as a luminary for Indigenous rodeo. He died this year at the age of 36.
Spud Jones, 36, July 4: Jones ascended to new heights in rodeo when he became the first Navajo bull rider to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo in 2008, providing inspiration to Indigenous bull riders in New Mexico and beyond.
Raised in a Navajo community north of Gallup, Jones, who died after dealing with an illness, rode the professional rodeo circuit with a continual grin, pride in his reputation and a propensity for the road.
“He showed us that it is actually possible, especially coming from where we’re from,” said Robbie Taylor Jr., a Diné bull rider on the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association circuit. “He’s probably the only reason [I’m] pro rodeo now.”
Roland Garcia, 41, July 7: Garcia, a family man and a longtime employee of Ski Santa Fe, died after he was caught in a rip current while swimming during a vacation in Costa Rica.
Roland Garcia was a familiar figure for many in Northern New Mexico, especially winter sports enthusiasts, as the longtime manager of the rental and repair shop at Ski Santa Fe.
“If you ever visited the rental or repair shop, chances are you were touched by Roland’s welcoming smile and eagerness to always help,” the ski resort wrote in a statement on social media.
Valdemar DeHerrera, 105, July 15: As a young man, DeHerrera rarely traveled anywhere outside his family’s ranch in Costilla. That changed after he received a draft notice.
DeHerrera was one of the last living survivors of the Battle of Bataan and believed to be the last in New Mexico.
DeHerrera did not have to endure the Bataan Death March — he was part of a group of soldiers who initially escaped to Corregidor Island — but he was eventually captured and imprisoned by the Japanese for three years.
After the war, he worked for the state highway department and the Molycorp molybdenum mine near Questa, from which he retired, returning to his family ranch.
Martin Gutierrez, 36, July 26: Gutierrez, who worked in the maintenance department at the New Mexico School for the Deaf and was a graduate of the school, drowned at Conchas Lake during a camping trip.
Family members and people who knew him said he was well-known and loved in the local deaf community.
“My son was a beam of light, and everyone he touched was impacted by him,” his mother, Priscilla Shannon Gutierrez, said. “He left an impression on literally everybody that met him — very kindhearted, sweet-natured, funny.”
Alfonso Lovato, 80, Aug. 1: In addition to his decades coaching and training amateur and professional boxers in the Santa Fe area, Lovato spent more than three decades working for the city parks division.
Born in a tiny community in San Miguel County, he was working as a ranch hand in Texas by the time he was 13. He and his wife moved from Las Vegas, N.M., to Santa Fe in the 1970s.
Joaquin Zamora, one of his boxers, said Lovato, who died following a lengthy battle with cancer, cared deeply about helping the boys stay on the straight and narrow. With school-age athletes, he would often check their grades before letting them train.
Richard Snider, 79, Aug. 4: Snider, a musician and educator, spent decades teaching music to what he estimated were thousands of students in Santa Fe, including at Santa Fe Public Schools and St. Michael’s High School.
Born in Texas, he came to Santa Fe in the early 1970s and took a job as a band and music teacher. He would teach for more than four decades, even returning to teaching after retirement.
Snider, who died after a lengthy illness, was known as wacky but wonderful, a gifted educator who was both no-nonsense and had fun teaching.
Sallie Bingham
Sallie Bingham, 88, Aug. 6: The prolific Santa Fe writer’s last novel, Taken by the Shawnee, told a fictionalized version of the story of her great-great-great-great-grandmother, who was taken captive in 1779 and held for four years.
Bingham, who died of a stroke, wrote numerous novels and short stories.
She was the daughter of Barry Bingham Sr., longtime owner of the Courier-Journal newspaper and several other media properties in Louisville, Ky. She sat on the board of the family company in the 1980s.
In addition to her artistic endeavors, Bingham was a prolific writer of letters to the editor to The New Mexican. She also wrote for Pasatiempo occasionally.
Paul Steiner, 73, Aug. 7: The artist, who died after a struggle with cancer, was born in New York but had been coming to New Mexico since he was a child, helping his grandmother build an adobe house in Santa Fe as a teenager. His meandering path to the art world started with 35 years as a carpenter, a few architecture classes and a bad back.
Once he decided he was going to try his hand at painting full time, Steiner never looked back.
A largely self-taught devotee of realism, he fully immersed himself in his work — typically oil paintings that prominently featured wild and remote New Mexico landscapes and that later sold at galleries on Canyon Road and elsewhere.
Tony Lopez dressed as Don Diego de Vargas for Fiesta de Santa Fe.
Tony Lopez, 80, Aug. 8: When the annual Fiesta de Santa Fe rolled around in years past, attendees were all but certain to bump into Lopez. Whether serving as master of ceremonies at the Pet Parade or attending novena Masses, he was a fixture.
Lopez, a Navy veteran and business owner who died after a series of health problems, including a major stroke, played the role of Don Diego de Vargas in 1974 and went on to serve at least five terms as president of the Fiesta Council, where he was a lifelong member.
“Tony’s work ensured Fiesta remained a living expression of Santa Fe’s history, faith and unity,” said Fiesta Council President Krystle Lucero.
Kevin Southwick
Kevin Southwick, 56, Aug. 17: Southwick, one of the leaders of the Rotary Club of Santa Fe’s July Fourth Pancakes on the Plaza, collapsed and died shortly after helping someone push a car off the road near his home.
A Missouri native with family ties to Santa Fe, Southwick moved here in 2014. A longtime Rotarian, he headed the local club in 2024 and was president of the Rotary Club Foundation of Santa Fe at the time of his death.
Kerry Quinn, a fellow longtime Rotarian, wrote in an email Southwick “lived and breathed Rotary and its ideals.” During Pancakes on the Plaza, Quinn wrote, Southwick “handled not just the pancake-making process, but inspired his team to keep it fun.”
Evelyn Ward, 89, Aug. 21: Ward’s vision of making pet food available to people living in rural communities turned into the Food 4 Pets program, which now delivers dog and cat food to 1,600 people in rural communities across Northern New Mexico.
She operated the program as a volunteer for a decade after its 2014 launch and never asked for or expected compensation.
The Santa Fe native and onetime gallery owner, who died in her sleep, worked in law enforcement in the Grand Canyon State for 25 years, becoming one of the first two female police detectives in the United States.
Zozobra Dancer James “Chip” Lilienthal, front, practices in 1988. Lilienthal died Sept. 12.
James “Chip” Lilienthal, 76, Sept. 12: Lilienthal was the second-ever Fire Spirit for the annual Burning of Zozobra, spending 34 years playing that pivotal role.
“Trained by the very first Fire Spirit, Jacques Cartier, Chip carried Zozobra’s blazing legacy forward for decades, lighting up the Fiesta sky and our hearts with every fiery step,” the Official Burning of Zozobra event page says in a Facebook post.
Ray Sandoval, now organizer of the annual burning, was 6 when he first met the Los Alamos native. Outside of the Fire Spirit role, Lilienthal was a different person, Sandoval said. He was a reserved city employee, an engineer with the Santa Fe Public Works Department, and “the nicest person you could meet.”
Director Robert Redford on location in Truchas for The Milagro Beanfield War.
Robert Redford, 89, Sept. 16: While his connections to New Mexico are varied, Redford is perhaps best known in the northern part of the state for directing The Milagro Beanfield War, which was largely filmed in Truchas. The story focuses on a water rights struggle between locals and a wealthy developer in the fictional town of Milagro.
He also advocated for environmental causes in the state and prompted its growing film industry.
Redford’s peaceful death at his home in Utah left New Mexico in mourning. The movie icon had loved and called the state home part time for decades. He maintained a home in Santa Fe County and his wife, Sibylle Szaggars Redford, owns a gallery in Santa Fe.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement, “His legacy endures in every film that honors New Mexico’s stories, in his conservation work that protects our landscapes, and in the tradition of artists who understand that great art serves both beauty and truth.”
Florence Jaramillo, longtime owner/operator of the Rancho de Chimayó restaurant, died Sept. 22.
Florence Jaramillo, 94, Sept. 22: The longtime owner/operator of Rancho de Chimayó, “Mrs. J” served beans and chile to weary pilgrims making the Holy Week trek to Santuario de Chimayó up the road.
She hosted celebrations for weddings, graduations, prom dinners, first Communions and baptisms. She worked the dining room, tended bar, directed the hosting and jumped into the kitchen fray as needed.
She wasn’t from Chimayó — she grew up in Connecticut — but Jaramillo became Chimayó as she dished up local-style classics, many inherited from her former husband Arturo Jaramillo’s family, with whom she opened the now-iconic restaurant in 1965.
Jin Hall Yee, 88, Sept. 23: Yee owned and operated the State Cafe, a Las Vegas, N.M., institution, for decades, serving up three cuisines — Chinese, New Mexican and American — 16 hours a day, six days a week.
Born in China, Yee moved to the U.S. with his family and helped run restaurants in Arizona before moving to Las Vegas in the 1960s. During its heyday, the cafe did a brisk business and became a beloved local hub.
Jin Yee, who poured his energy into the restaurant during two stints of operation over the years, died after a lengthy illness.
Musician and instrument-maker Cipriano Vigil performs in 2020 at the Museum of International Folk Art in conjunction with the exhibit Música Buena: Hispano Folk Music of New Mexico.
Cipriano Vigil, 83, Sept. 25: Folklorist and musician Vigil left behind an immense trove of music history: binders of music compositions; recordings of his own music as well as that of other folk musicians from around the region; and hundreds of stringed instruments, many handmade.
Vigil, who died after a yearslong battle with cancer, earned renown far and wide for his lifelong commitment to all kinds of music — particularly to the traditional folk music of New Mexico.
The Chamisal native taught music and ethnomusicology for decades at Northern New Mexico Community College, based in Española. He received many awards and distinctions over the years, including the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in 1994.
“He played until the very end — until he couldn’t anymore,” said his son, Cipriano Vigil Jr.
Douglas Atwill in his studio with his artwork.
Douglas Atwill, 92, Oct. 8: Atwill was a man of many talents. He wrote. He designed homes. He served in the Army counterintelligence corps in the 1950s. But painting was his main love.
“As long as he was able to paint, he saw life as worth living,” said his friend Wayne Bladh.
Atwill moved to Santa Fe in 1969 and began to fully build his reputation as a painter with images of Southwestern landscapes and his own gardens.
He kept painting until shortly before his death, even as his eyesight faded. He died due to complications from cancer, heart problems and “impending blindness caused by macular degeneration,” his family said.
Georges Zadeyan holds his grandchildren outside of the French Pastry Shop, a Santa Fe institution that has served the city for more than 50 years. Zadeyan, 82, died Oct. 9.
Georges Zadeyan, 82, Oct. 9: The French Pastry Shop has been a Santa Fe mainstay for more than 50 years. So, too, was longtime owner Zadeyan, who even after passing the business onto his son brought a familiar smile to the spot in La Fonda.
Longtime employee Michele Waffelaert, who spent almost three decades at the pastry shop, rising from dishwasher to manager, said Zadeyan, a native of Marseille, France, was a frugal boss but a generous friend.
“All the people who worked for him remember him as a good boss, someone very kind,” Waffelaert said.
Chaplain Joe Dudziak gets a hug from Bart, a homeless man near the intersection of St. Francis Drive and Zia Road in Santa Fe in June. He said his street outreach mission is “like visiting with friends.” But, he added, “You don’t just get that right away.”
Joe Dudziak, 66, Oct. 27: A tireless advocate for Santa Fe’s homeless and the driving force behind Chaplain Joe’s Street Outreach, Dudziak came to street ministry relatively late in life.
He grew up in Los Alamos, joining the Air Force after high school. Professionally, he spent years working in local government.
But after a midlife crisis left him pondering life’s deeper meaning, Dudziak started volunteering at what was long known as the Interfaith Community Shelter at Pete’s Place in Santa Fe, getting to know people who sheltered there. He later started his own ministry for people on the streets.
His death from cancer left many in the homeless service provider circle reeling — heartbroken at the loss of a friend and concerned about the void he leaves behind.
Maurice Burns paints Cuban dancers in his Santa Fe studio in November 2015, inspired by a trip he took to Cuba.
Maurice Burns, 88, Nov. 8: Maurice Burns dedicated decades to pursuing his profession as an artist his own way.
From humble beginnings as a bricklayer and later a soldier, Burns’ talent for math had set him on a track for success. He took a job for Illinois Bell Telephone Co., and then, after learning programming, moved to Chicago City College, where he designed systems in the days when a computer might take up an entire room.
But he decided to pursue his real passion by attending art school — a decision that cost him his marriage and the stability of his job.
Burns first moved to Santa Fe in the early 1970s to help with a partnership between the Rhode Island School of Design and the Institute of American Indian Arts, where he taught.
Susan Conway Oliphant
Susan Corn Conway Oliphant, 92, Dec. 3: Art dealer, art restorer, entertainer, Southern belle — Susan Corn Conway Oliphant, the wife of editorial cartoonist Patrick Oliphant, was a fierce defender of her husband’s work and so much more.
In the words of Santa Fe neighbor and filmmaker Bill Banowsky, Conway Oliphant was a people connector and a facilitator of friends. She organized legendary and often daily and impromptu salons, bringing together artists, writers and musicians.
Conway Oliphant, an advocate her husband’s work, brokered a deal with the University of Virginia that is now the depository of her husband’s artwork and documents. The legacy of the cartoonist, who is now 90, was her final project.
Geneva Woomavoyah Navarro, 99, Dec. 11: Navarro became a registered nurse whose four-decade nursing career later took her to California, Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico.
After she retired in 1986, Navarro began volunteering as a docent at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. It was then she took note of the dwindling number of people who were fluent in the Comanche language and launched a post-retirement career in Oklahoma and Santa Fe dedicated to preserving the language and passing it on.
Over the years, Navarro touched museums, schools and even the U.S. Senate with her activism. In 2003, she testified in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs about amendments to the Native American Languages Act to support tribal language survival schools.
Joe Ely performs during the “Tsunami Relief — Austin to South Asia” concert in 2005 in Austin, Texas. He died this month in Taos at 78.
Joe Ely, 78, Dec. 15: The musician, a Texas native, moved to Taos later in life, and he and his wife, Sharon, became beloved members of Taos’ vibrant live music community.
Born in Amarillo and raised in Lubbock, he later settled in Austin. Ely signed with MCA Records in the 1970s and spent more than five decades recording and performing around the world. He was the epitome of country’s marriage with punk rock.
Ely, who died of complications from Lewy body dementia, Parkinson’s disease and pneumonia, never achieved a great deal of commercial success, but was a prolific and widely respected artist who churned out more than 20 albums and counted numerous musical luminaries among his fans.
That list ranged from Bruce Springsteen to the Clash, for whom he opened on a 1981 tour, singing backup vocals on the group’s smash hit “Should I Stay or Should I Go.”
