Annie Cleo Melendez was born March 29, 1925 in Portales New Mexico, Roosevelt County. She died on Dec. 21, 2024.

Cleo grew up primarily in Southeast New Mexico with a few years in northwest Texas.

Her father and mother were farmers; the majority of their crops were various types of grain. Cleo had three sisters Leila, Fern and Lynda, and a brother John Robert who passed early in his teens.

Cleo went to college at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, where she received a teaching degree and met her future husband Joe Melendez from Roswell.

Joe And Cleo bounced around New Mexico after graduation living in Sante Fe, and Albuquerque before moving to California in the early 1950s.

The family lived in Williams, Tulare, Yuba City, and Oxnard before settling down in Santa Barbara and eventually Goleta.

Besides her teaching profession Cleo’s primary passion was her family. Joe and Cleo had five children, four boys and one girl (Paul, Dan, Marc, Carla, Chuck); Danny was lost in an auto accident in 1978.

During her tenure in Goleta Cleo taught third grade at Hollister School for years before moving to other area schools teaching the same grade. She finished her teaching career as a reading specialist roving around to students in need.

In her retirement she enjoyed many activities including sports, reading, genealogy and knitting: she knitted thousands of baby caps for all the newborns at Cottage Hospital.

Cleo lived her life in complete honor. She was a strong and intelligent woman who had all the best traits of a human being. She will be sorely missed by her family.

The family would like to thank caretaker Marva Erickson, she is our hero and angel. Services will be held at her gravesite at Santa Barbara Cemetery, 10 a.m. Tuesday Jan. 7.

A celebration of her life will be held immediately after (site to be determined).

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Goleta Girls and Boys Club.