Dina Ochoa

Dina Elfida Flores Ochoa was a caring wife, mother, grandmother, sister, and friend. She left this world on September 12, 2021, at age 81.

She was born to Fortino Flores and Agustina Almaguer Flores on April 20, 1940, in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Her father, a blind musician, and her mother, a community activist, and poet, made an indelible mark on her as creativity, faith, and service shaped her life. As a single mother, Agustina founded the League for Rural Women to protect women and children from violence and to provide basic health care and education in her small village of Las Rusias and surrounding communities.

She met her husband, José Ochoa, through a friend at a small Mexican Presbyterian mission in Brownsville, Texas. Together, they had three children: Esther Gonzales (Patrick) from Cheyenne, Wyoming, Linda Pinckard (Sean) from Winston Salem, NC, and José, Jr. (Sara) from Chicago, IL. They were married for 53 years.

Dina spent her life serving others in many ways, such as a special education assistant, a nurse's aide, and a caretaker for the elderly. Along with her husband José, she helped start small church missions throughout South Texas and served as an officer of the Mexican Baptist Convention of Texas’ Woman’s Union.

Dina always made fast friends for life wherever she lived, whether it was in Brownsville, Houston, or Corpus Christi, TX, Winston-Salem, NC, or Cheyenne, Wyoming. She loved to shop, visit with friends or help decorate for an upcoming holiday or event. Her friends said Dina was quite the fashionable lady. Known for her trendy fashions, well-kept nails and hair, and extensive costume jewelry collection, she always made a fashion statement.

She loved to create floral arrangements and wreaths decked out in beautiful artificial flowers and birds for friends, family, or donations for fundraisers for church or the local ballet company. In the last two years of her life, she began taking painting classes, and she left behind a small collection of colorful paintings of her favorite subjects, flowers, and birds.

After a short struggle with cancer, Dina leaves behind her husband and children along with her four grandchildren: Mia of Winston Salem, NC, Raith of Evanston, Wyoming, Carson of Winston Salem, NC, Benjamin of Chicago, IL, and her beloved dog, Lolita of Chicago, IL.  Her witty humor, love of beautiful things, and friendly and giving spirit are traits fostered in her children and grandchildren.

A funeral service will be at noon, Friday, October 15, 2021, in the Lakeview Chapel at Schrader, Aragon, and Jacoby Funeral Home, with interment to follow in Cheyenne National Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Dina’s memory can be made to Davis Hospice Center of Cheyenne or Asylum Seeker Network of Support, Inc. Her great-niece founded ASNS to provide direct aid to asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants on both sides of the Texas/Mexico border, primarily along the Rio Grande Valley.