Cloudy, 27° F
(Jan. 5, 1914 - April 13, 2015)
Telesforo Segura died Monday, April 13, 2015, at his home in Mission, Texas. He was 101 years old.
Telesforo was born on Jan. 5, 1914, in Laguna De Guanajuato, Mexico, to Maria De La Lous Garza Segura and Pedro Maen Segura. At the age of 17 he married Sabina Tobar and together they had eight children.
Early in their marriage he moved his family to McCook, Texas, where he worked as a farmer and also for Benson Estates, clearing out the mesquite by hand so the ground could be used for agriculture. In the early 1950s he bought a truck so he and his family could migrate to Powell to work in the fields.
During this time Telesforo and five of his friends, Juan Limon, Bocho Cortez, Cheto Cortez, Hildo Flores and Fidel Diaz, who also had trucks, contracted with the Great Western Sugar Company out of Weslaco, Texas, which at that time was where the office for the Great Western Sugar Company was located, to bring people to Powell to work in the beet fields.
Telesforo and his friends then started their 1,800-mile long journey to Powell. When they all arrived in Powell, they went to work hoeing sugar beets for various farmers in the area. Telesforo and his friends were responsible for the migration of most of the Hispanic population to Powell, Lovell and the surrounding towns.
When sugar beet hoeing was over, everyone would travel back to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. In the late 1950s, Telesforo and his family stayed in Powell year-round, and he went to work with Cox and Fisher Farms. After the beet hoeing season was over, he and his friends, who also stayed in Powell, had contracts to haul potatoes to the storage cellars at Vocation, which was located near the Relocation Camp on Heart Mountain. Telesforo then spent the winter months sorting potatoes at the storage cellars.
In the 1960s, he worked for Murray Farms, and from the late 1960s to the 1980s, he worked for Raymond Rodriguez Farms. When sugar beet harvest started, he would get his white 1972 Chevy truck ready to haul beets for Felix Carrizales. Oh yes, the white truck had a name, too. He called it “El Palomo,” and he and “El Palomo” would work together for several months until the beet harvest was over.
Telesforo was a very hard-working man and taught all of his children that same work ethic. He loved farming and never really wanted to retire, but did buy a house in Mission, Texas, where he and his wife Sabina lived when they decided to start returning there in the winter months.
Telesforo enjoyed going to garage sales and buying items to take back to Texas to sell at the flea markets, so after the beet harvest season was over, he would put the higher sides back on “El Palomo,” load all the goods inside the truck that he had collected throughout the summer and secure the tarp to the box for the long drive back to Mission with his wife Sabina by his side.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, Telesforo returned to Powell for the summer to see his children and continued to work in the beet fields for Burgener Farms and various other farmers in the area.
Telesforo dearly loved his music and one of the great joys in his life was listening to and watching his sons-in-law and grandsons playing Conjunto music.
Telesforo is survived by his second wife Herminia; his daughters Juanita (Sabino) Diaz, Manuela (Jesus) Hernandez, Guadalupe (Carlos) Flores, Angela (Arnaldo) Flores; and his son Pedro (Twyla) Segura; a sister Dolores Hernandez; 20 grandchildren; 35 great-grandchildren; seven great-great grandchildren; three step-children; three step-grandchildren; and nine step-great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his first wife Sabina, sons Cecil and Jesus, daughter Sophia, daughter-in-law Mary, two sisters and three brothers.
Rosary will be on Wednesday, April 22, at 6:30 p.m. at St. Barbara’s Catholic Church in Powell. Funeral Mass will be on Thursday, April 23, at 10 a.m. at St. Barbara’s Catholic Church.
Thompson Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
