Virginia U Stringfellow

Virginia Ulibarri Gibbons Martinez Stringfellow, 94, passed away Jan. 22, 2022. She was born February 27, 1927, to parents Raymond Ulibarri and Andrea Ulibarri (Montano) both of whom precede her in death along with siblings, Rebecca (Henry) Lucero, Ray (Cleo) Ulibarri, and Priscilla Waugh.  

Even as a child, Virginia was a very hard-working woman. She helped her dad build their house on Prairie from the basement up when she was still crawling.  In her mid-20s, she started working in the kitchen at Old St Mary’s Corwin. It was there that she met many nuns who became her lifelong friends. At this time, she was a single mother doing her best to make ends meet while also taking care of her aging parents.

The nuns helped her go to nursing school, but she had to make the difficult decision to put her 4 young children in the orphanage Sacred Heart Home so that she could make a better life for them and herself.

After nursing school, she went on to work in the Emergency room for 41 years as a nurse at Saint Mary Corwin – The very same hospital where she had worked in the kitchen.

Some of her most cherished memories are the times spent with her family in Albert and Mosquero New Mexico. She would load up whoever wanted to go and drive a fully loaded car for the 5-hour drive.

Virgina loved celebrating her birthday! The bigger the celebration the better! She had a huge party at the old train depot for her 80th birthday. So much family came from across the country, that we thought, how will we ever top this?! Ten years later, she topped it for her 90th birthday in Las Vegas with most of her grandchildren, nieces, and nephews! She danced until 3:00 am with a line of young men that couldn’t believe she was still up dancing.  Her late night couldn’t stop her from waking at dawn to play the slots that were calling her name. She loved to dance, needlepoint, garden, celebrate all the things, go to the fair and every parade, spending many nights at the Eagles Club with more of her chosen family. Basically, she loved to be surrounded by people and watching people. She could have made “people watching” an Olympic sport. She adored her puppy Sadie that was always by her side. She went to the flea market every chance she got and could never pass a garage sale without stopping. She enjoyed painting pots and birdhouses that she had collected.

Once her and her sister, Priscilla, decided to take up exercising. They figured out that if they walked the mile to the Dairy Queen, they could have an ice cream as their halfway treat.

She was never shy. If she had something to say she said it. All of it. She was especially never shy bragging about her family. She was so proud of every single grandchild, great grandchild, niece, nephew, and cousin she had.

Virginia leaves to cherish her memory, her siblings, Alfred (Lou) Ulibarri, and Carol (Bill) Sorensen; her children, Bernadine (Sherman), and James Richard Gibbons, Cathy Gallagher, and Danny Gibbons; grandchildren, Andy Mazzie, Brenda (Jon) Taylor, *Alex (Kristina) Martinez, Daniel Jr. (Julie) Gibbons, Geno (Angela) Gibbons, Tanya (Henry) Prien, and Shawn (Cassie) Gibbons; great-grandchildren, *Haley, *Heather, Emily, Sierra, Rhiannon (Jeff), Jeremy, Zane, Daniel III (Melissa), Thomas (Alysea), Alayna, Austin (Tayleen), Destiny (Edgar), Marcus (Keanna), Sean, Jennifer, Brianna, Wynonna (Andrew), Paul (Mariah), Lucas (Lenaa), Emily, Quentin, Lexi (Rafa), Taustin 13 great-great grandchildren; nieces and nephews, *Teri Waugh, Patricia (Bob) Vujich, Cindy (Bob) Powers, Jimmy (Becki) Ditmar, Christine (William) Ulibarri, Joe (Laura) Ulibarri, Henry Jr., Dee Ann, Sandy Julie, and Michael; great nieces and nephews, Cayla (Curtis) Andrews, Robert (Aubree) Powers, Darcy (Shawn) Milan, Bryson (Jade) Powers, Angela (Patrick) Bryan, Leeya (Timothy), Julie, Ben, Jesse, Reilly, and so many family members that she was born with and countless other chosen family and lifelong friends that she stayed in touch with until the last day on this Earth.

* Favorites

The family will receive guests from 1:00-4:00 PM at 

Steel City Eagles Club 704 Elmhurst Pl, Pueblo, CO 81004