Leticia Maria Rafael Gomez

Leticia Maria Rafael Gomez, 47, of Centreville, died Saturday, Feb. 25.

Born May 6, 1969, in Aruba, she came to the U.S. in 1987 to attend the University of Alabama. While a student there, she married German Gomez in 1989. After taking time off from school to start her family, she returned to U.A. and completed her nursing degree in 2008. She served as a registered nurse at Princeton Baptist Medical Center in Birmingham, as a teacher’s aide in Bibb County, and as an instructor for the University of Alabama College of nursing.

A gifted musician, she sang and played flute and cuatro (a four-stringed guitarlike instrument). In 1995, while raising her family, she became a missionary of the National Plan of the United Methodist Church, serving Bibb and Chilton counties.

She is survived by her husband, the Rev. German Gomez, local ordained pastor of the San Juan Mission of Clanton First United; children, Aarendy Gomez Boykin, Irais Gomez and Aaron Gomez; her parents, Efrain and Maria Rafael; and her siblings, Oswaldo Rafael (Osiris) and Gilbert Rafael (Diana); as well as her nieces and nephews.

Services will be held at 1 p.m., February 28th at the First United Methodist in Clanton. Visitation will be held at Rockco Funeral Home Centreville on Monday, Feb. 27 from 6-8 p.m. Rev. Doug West will officiate. Burial will follow at Pineland Memorial Cemetery in Centreville.