Matriarch, 94, leaves nearly 300 grandkids

Gregoria Martinez, 94, might seem like your typical grandma. She made quilts for her grandchildren, encouraged them to go to church, prayed for them and gave advice.

Except the Vernon, Texas, grandma didn't have just a handful of grandchildren when she died late last month.

She had nearly 300.

Ninety-eight were grandchildren; 164 were great-grandchildren and 16 were great-great-grandchildren — all descendants of her own 11 offspring.

That's without counting her three stepchildren or any of their descendants. The family has purposely underestimated the total count but believes if all are included it could be as high as 500.

Actually, they have been losing track. When nearly half the family attended the Aug. 26 funeral, relatives passed out index cards to update names and phone numbers while they had their chance.

Martinez's survivors packed the 500-seat St. Mary's Catholic Church in Quanah, Texas.

"Her numbers are pretty astounding,"said Jesse Jalomo of his mother-in-law.

The devout Catholic woman, whose husband, Ponciano, died at age 94 sometime after their 50th wedding anniversary, "could fill up our elementary school in Quanah with all the great-grandchildren and the great-great-grandchildren,"Jesse Jalomo said.

And she knew practically all of them.

"If one of my sons would come up to see her, she'd say, 'Are you JJ?' He'd say, 'It's JJ, Grandma.' And she'd say, 'Are you doing right? Are you taking care of your family?' "

When Gregoria was raising her children, she and her husband were migrant workers, going to Wisconsin to pick tomatoes and cucumbers, then back to Texas to pick cotton.

"They had 11 kids, and raised 14, and not one time did (they) draw a food stamp, a welfare check or an unemployment check," Jalomo said of his in-laws. "They didn't believe in that."

Nearly three-quarters of the family live in Quanah or nearby, but the rest are spread as far away as Arizona and Missouri.