Maria de los Angeles Josefa Antonia Jimenez Benitez passed away on December 11, 2020 at the age of 90 after a courageous battle with cancer.

Angeles was born on April 28, 1930 in Cuenca, Spain as the youngest child of Gerardo Tomas Jimenez Gonzales and Ramona Maria de los Angeles Benitez Gonzales. She spent her early years in Barcelona and then Cuenca, where she and her immediate family endured and survived the Spanish civil war. Her father was a senior national law enforcement official both before the war and after.

Despite growing up in an age and society which did not promote women’s career aspirations, Angeles nevertheless found the opportunity to explore various careers. She was a teacher, following in the footsteps of her mother, and also hosted a regular radio show which focused on women’s issues. She decided on a nursing career and entered the Spanish Red Cross School in Madrid. Angeles served as a Captain in the Spanish Army by virtue of her nursing training and graduated from the Red Cross school in 1958.

Later that year she married and put her nursing career on hold to move to the United States where she raised her children, initially in Washington, D.C. and Louisville, Kentucky before settling in Williamsburg, VA in 1966. She eventually became a U.S. citizen and spent the rest of her life in her adopted home except for brief visits to her family in Spain. Angeles never returned to nursing but instead put her heart and soul into raising her sons and participated in a variety of volunteer efforts. She was a frequent volunteer at her sons’ school, Walsingham Academy, and was very proud of her role in helping to establish the Avalon Center, a regional non-profit organization that provides outreach and services to victims of domestic and sexual abuse.

Angeles is survived by her two sons, Gerry (Kim) Sanz of Arlington, Virginia, and Ed (Terri) Sanz of Charlotte, North Carolina; and four grandchildren who she cherished, Alex, Nikki, Joe, and Kat. She was preceded in death by her brother, Gerardo Manuel Jimenez Benitez, and her mother and father.

Angeles’ ashes will be laid to rest in her beloved mountains surrounding her hometown of Cuenca, Spain.

Cremation Society of Virginia-Newport News assisted the family with arrangements.