Mourners say goodbye to Uvalde teacher and her husband
Jolean Olvedo, left, weeps while being comforted by her partner Natalia Gutierrez at a memorial for Robb Elementary School students and teachers who were killed in last week’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Tuesday, May 31.
June 1, 2022
UVALDE — Mourners gathered Wednesday at Sacred Heart Catholic Church to say goodbye to Robb Elementary School teacher Irma Garcia, who died in the shooting at the Uvalde, Texas, grade school and her husband, Joe, who died two days later from a heart attack.
Nineteen children and two teachers — Garcia and her co-teacher, 44-year-old Eva Mireles — were killed May 24 when an 18-year-old gunman burst into their classroom. The litany of visitations, funerals and burials began Monday and will continue into mid-June.
Irma, 48, was finishing up her 23rd year as a teacher at Robb Elementary. In a letter posted on the school’s website at the beginning of the school year, Garcia told her students that she and Joe had four children — a Marine, a college student, a high school student and a seventh grader.
Joe, 50, collapsed and died after dropping off flowers at his wife’s memorial. The couple would have been married 25 years on June 28.
Another funeral Wednesday was for 10-year-old Jose Flores Jr., also at Sacred Heart. He made the honor roll and received a certificate on May 24, hours before the shooting. His father told CNN his son loved baseball and video games and “was always full of energy.”
