Rose Graznak Rojas

Rose Graznak Rojas, 90, of Beaumont, Texas, died Monday, November 28, 2022. 

She relished a challenge, whether it was moving across the country to Texas as a young woman to start a family, learning how to make tamales from her mother-in-law or mastering quilting later in life, making at least one quilt for each of her grandchildren (which was quite a task considering she had more than a dozen of them). 

Her life was devoted to her family. She sewed dresses and baked the cakes for her daughters’ weddings. She prepared feasts when her sprawling family filled her home, first on Avenue C and later on Amelia Street. (She always sent everyone home with a bounty of leftovers.)

She was born on February 2, 1932, in Greensboro, Pennsylvania, to John and Eva Graznak. She grew up in a large family, falling somewhere in the middle of a lineup of 15 siblings, raised on a roughly 100-acre farm with cows and chickens. 

As a young woman, her mother dispatched her to Paducah, Kentucky, to help one of her sisters with her children. There, she met Jesse Rojas, a sailor in World War II who traveled around working construction jobs after the war. They married in 1954.

She followed him home to Beaumont, where he had grown up and much of his family lived. They had five children: Eva Storms, Frank Rojas, Marge Marchetti, Jesse Rojas Jr., and Jayne Cano. 

A lifelong Catholic, she was a longtime member of the congregation at Cristo Rey Catholic Church and later, she worshiped at St. Joseph’s in Beaumont. She was also active for many years, and made good friends, in the quilting group at the Best Years Center and for a time, had a job sewing the denim school supply pouches for the kindergarteners at Regina Howell Elementary School. 

Over the years, even as she became firmly planted in Beaumont, she kept close ties to home. Every summer, the family would pile into the car and trek to the farm in the coal-mining country of southwestern Pennsylvania. She brought some of her grandchildren there. After her husband retired, she and Jesse would stay for weeks-long visits. Her younger sister Margaret was one of her closest friends; Saturday mornings were dedicated to their marathon phone conversations. When her sister was ill with terminal cancer, she went to Pennsylvania to care for her. 

She was a caretaker by nature. Her love could sometimes be tough but it was constant, particularly for her husband, who she tended until his death in 2022. She was also passionate about her grandchildren. She would take them on roadtrips, her Astro van stocked with candy and giant tubs of cheese puffs from Sam’s Club. 

She was relentlessly curious, even if it meant dissembling a kitchen appliance just to figure out how it worked. She liked to wake up early — well before sunrise most days — and listen to the radio while she sewed and cooked. She loved identifying different species of birds. Her home on Amelia Street had nearly an acre of land she transformed into a farm of her own, harvesting — among many other things — tomatoes, squash, cabbages, persimmons, pecans and figs. She also thoroughly enjoyed finding good bargains and, as a child of the Great Depression, she refused to be wasteful, making the most of leftover food and finding new life in things others might have just thrown away. 

Survivors include her children, Eva Storms and her husband, Pat; Frank Rojas and his wife, Charmaine; Marge Marchetti and her husband, Andy; Jesse Rojas Jr., and his wife, Olivia; and Jayne Cano and her husband, Ben; grandchildren, Bill Storms and his wife, Rachael; Laura Leidig and her husband, David; Rick Rojas; Daniel Rojas and his wife, Amy; Joey Marchetti and his wife, Lauren; Tommy Marchetti; Johnny Marchetti; Teresa Marchetti; Peter Marchetti; Andrew Marchetti; Mark Marchetti; Sara Rojas; Ana Rojas; Elizabeth Rojas; Luis Cano; Santiago Cano; Carmen Cano; and Jalissa Martinez; great-grandchildren, Alexia; Patrick; Anthony; Joseph; Gabriel; Zachary; Genevieve; Joe; Anthony; and Paul. 

Rose was preceded in death by her husband of sixty-seven years, Jesse Rojas; her grandson Andy Storms; great-grandson, Bronc Rojas; and her parents.

A Rosary for Mrs. Rojas will be recited at 5:00 p.m., with a gathering of family and friends to follow 5:30 p.m. until 8:00 p.m., Friday, December 2, 2022, at Broussard’s, 2000 McFaddin Avenue, Beaumont. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, December 3, 2022, at Cristo Rey Catholic Church, 767 Avenue A, Beaumont, with her interment to follow at Magnolia Cemetery, Beaumont.