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In memory of

Lila Alicia Estrada

West Covina, CA, USA

April 15, 1930 - December 1, 2020

Apr 15, 1930 - Dec 1, 2020

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Lila Alicia Estrada of West Covina, CA passed away on December 1, 2020. She was 90 years old.

Lila was born on April 15, 1930 in the city of Los Angeles. Her father was Alex Montoya, a working actor in Hollywood and mother, Juliet Montoya. She was one of 3 children and her sisters were Armida and Hortencia but we knew them as Auntie Amy and Tia Tencha. Lila married and gave birth to her first born 9 months later, just like Grace Kelly. She is survived by her six children, Steve Estrada, Cecilia Estrada, Chris Estrada, John Estrada, Adriana Baker (Deedee) and Susan Utterberg, grandchildren Summer Sneed, Steven Estrada, Blake Hawley and great grandchildren, Chloe Furbush and John “JC” Gosney.

Before having children, Lila was a Beauty Operator at the Farmerette Beauty Salon at the Farmers Market in Los Angeles. Later, she began a 2nd career as an RTD bus driver within the Los Angeles Metro area and retired after 17 years of service with a perfect attendance record and enough unused vacation time that allowed her to purchase a new vehicle.

The family lived in Rosemead, CA for many years and they were very active within their community. The kids all went to St. Anthony's Catholic School and also participated in many local organizations including the Rosemead Rebels, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, AYSO Soccer, and the Garvey Park little league baseball organization.

Being a single parent, Lila was somehow able to provide a privileged life for her children. She subsidized her income by offering babysitting services to our cousins, families from church and the local community. Lila loved children and had a level of discipline that allowed her to manage a household with many kids ranging in all ages from babies to teenagers. Those of you who had to sit in the corner of the living room learned how to behave better under Lila's care.

The privileges we had as her children were not necessarily of monetary value but related to the amount of unconditional love she had for her 6 kids and her ability to create fun and adventure in everything we did. Her incredible skill to make friends easily was related to her positive outlook on life. As kids, we were able to take many vacations and travelled to Yosemite, Sequoia, Grand Canyon, Lake Havasu, Leo Carrillo Beach, Carpinteria Beach and let’s not forget the annual Newport Beach house and trips to Ensenada each Labor Day weekend.

Lila always encouraged her children to achieve greatness and strive to be the best at everything we did. Many will remember the trophy shelf displayed in our front room that showcased 7 shelves of our trophies earned over the years. The bottom shelf contained mom’s bowling trophies and each shelf above hers represented one of the 6 kids trophies from football, cheerleading, soccer, baseball and other achievements.

Lila was “the boss of herself” until her passing. As she aged, the family became concerned about her ability to take care of herself and up until the very end she still had to “do it her way”. She never wanted to have care, unless it was provided by her own children, but we were able to give her the amount of care needed to keep her in her home until the end. She insisted on this and we thank God we were able to do this otherwise we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to share the precious moments we experienced in the last few weeks of her life.

We are grateful as a family to have the best mom on the planet. She taught us so much about love, faith and most importantly how to make big ones out of little ones and always have fun.

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