The matriarch of the first Hispanic family in Waukesha has died at the age of 98. Antonia Don Diego "Toni" Melendes died on Tuesday, March 16, 1999, at the Virginia Health Care Center.
She was born on Oct. 9, 1900 in Mexico, immigrated to the United States in 1909, and has been a resident of Waukesha since July 7, 1919. At her 93rd birthday celebration, Mrs. Melendes recalled for a reporter that she and her late husband, Joseph, married in Clinton, Iowa, in 1912. Work on the railroad took the young couple to various Midwestern states, then to Waukesha, where they bought their home on The Strand in 1919. Her husband believed Waukesha to be a good place to raise a family.
He preceded her in death in 1953.
Mrs. Mendes' family remembers her as a hard-working person who ran a boarding house for a time and enjoyed crocheting and gardening. She was a gracious woman who made made everyone feel welcome in her home. A longtime member of St. Joseph's Catholic Church, she had belonged to the Christian Mothers and was president of the Guadalupe Society for two terms.
Survivors include her children Alex (Genevieve) of Suring, David (Susan) of Denver, Colo., and Carmen Hernandez of Waukesha; 14 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren, 16 great-great-grandchildren, and two great-great-great-grandchildren will also miss her. She was the dear sister of Mary Hernandez and the mother-in-law of Dorothy Melendes, both of Waukesha. Other relatives and friends also survive.
Preceding her in death in addition to her husband, were her son Leonard "Pro", her son-in-law George Hernandez, and her brother-in-law, Leonard Hernandez.