Marie Priscilla Hernandez

Marie Priscilla Hernandez, 88, passed away peacefully in her sleep in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on November 16, 2025. Her husband died eight days later, on November 23, 2025. She was born in Las Cruces on October 18, 1937, to Nestor Nevarez and Lydia Fitch, both from pioneer Las Cruces families. She grew up on Church Street, near downtown, part of a close-knit community until Urban Renewal in the late 1960s destroyed the heart of the city.

Priscilla was born with a hair lip and cleft palate, beginning life with incapacities requiring numerous surgeries at Carrie Tingley Hospital in Truth or Consequences. From these early traumatic events she learned a quiet resilience that would serve her well when future tragedies would strike. At the age of 14, on May 23, 1953, she married Joe Hernandez, her lifelong companion. She worked briefly at Leggs and later she devoted 25 years to K-Mart, where her vibrant personality made many friends among coworkers and customers throughout Las Cruces.

Priscilla and Joe raised two children, Laura Jean and Ronald Kevin, both of whom would precede her in death. The loss of Laura in 1982 at age 23, and later Ronnie in 2020 at age 60, left scars that she carried with both love and sorrow. Even in grief she nurtured family coherence. She compiled many albums of photographs and other mementos, recording fragments of her extended family’s history as time unfolded into the future.

She had a delightful sense of humor and a twinkle in her eye. Despite verbal disability she was a strong conversationalist. She had a wide variety of friends and often conveyed something of a quirky, tragic, view of life while never losing her ability to find humor in human situations.

During their entire marriage, Priscilla and Joe were extremely generous with their time, money, and home. Their door was never closed, and they hosted many family gatherings across decades of time. Indeed, they served as a kind of anchor for an extended family that, like many others in American society, was subject to multiple forces pulling families apart.

Priscilla is survived by her sister Olivia and her husband Jose Z. Garcia; Rachel Hecker and her husband Pete; and her brother Robert and his wife Antoinette. Three other siblings, George, Johnny, and Manuel, preceded her in death. She is survived by a multitude of nieces and nephews.

The family would like to express its gratitude to Blue Horizon, where Priscilla and Joe spent her last months. Their tireless care, sensitivity, and concern are deeply appreciated.

Funeral services will be held on Tuesday afternoon, December 2, at 1:30 pm at Getz Funeral Home, and will include Priscilla’s husband Joe, who died on November 23. They will be buried next to each other and their children at Masonic Cemetery.