Olga Valdes

 We are sad to announce Olga Llaneza Valdes, passed away November 23, at home in Philadelphia, one week to the day after her 99th birthday.

She was much loved, a woman of enormous generosity and passion and wit.  Fiercely independent and resourceful, Olga lived alone for more than three decades after the passing of her husband Sergio Valdes in 1980.  A life long Floridian, in the summer of 2020, she moved to Philadelphia to be near her daughter.

She was born November 16,1921 in Tampa, FL, daughter of Eulalia Valdespino and Jose Llaneza, Sr., fourth-born of five siblings, all of whom predeceased her.
Olga’s family was prominent in the Tampa cigar industry. Her father, Jose Llaneza, Sr., owned the Villazon Cigar Factory later managed by his sons Jose Jr, and Frank Llaneza, an industry pioneer.  Her maternal grandfather, Ramon Valdespino, published the first Spanish language newspaper for cigar workers.
,.
She met Sergio at Hillsborough High School, falling in love, she said when he was accompanying her dance class. She was 16, Sergio, 18. They married shortly before his induction into the U.S. Army First Division. During the long  wartime separation, she worked as a Red Cross Nurses’ Aide.

After WWII, they moved to Miami to pursue Sergio’s profession as pianist and bandleader in the Miami Beach hotels. A fastidious homemaker and devoted mother, Olga ferried them to Catholic school, to the library, music and dance lessons, designing dance costumes, documenting their accomplishments in albums and scrapbooks—as she did for all of Sergio’s achievements. When they reached middle school, she returned to a career in retail begun when she was in high school. It was work that she loved and often remarked that she greatly missed. 

For three decades, she managed a series of departments at Sears & Roebuck, including lingerie, appliances, and home décor, for which she had a special gift. After retiring from Sears, she spent several years at the Miami Merchandise Mart.

A whiz at numbers and administrative skills, she was mentored by her father who drove her to work at the children’s apparel store she was managing at 19.

She had a keen eye and considerable green thumb: among her possessions were numerous tomes on tropical plants, orchids, Florida ferns and manuals for home repair. She could beautify – and fix anything (vacuum cleaners, distressed furniture); drew up blueprints for the patio and many interior renovations that Sergio learned to build.  Well-matched hosts, their home in Westchester section of Miami was flooded with friends and neighbors every Christmas Eve for the Noche Buena feast and Sergio at the piano.  Her Christmas trees were the envy of the neighborhood.

Olga’s feisty often irreverent opinions were a source of delight to the family. “That’s a crock,” her response to foolish opinions;
“Life is short – except for me!”
“I’m still here,” she’d announce to visitors in her final decades. “I loved her passion, and irreverence:” cousin Anthony Perez remembers, “indomitable!”

She is survived by her son Sergio G. Valdes, of Miami, and daughter Lesley Valdes
of Philadelphia; granddaughters Jennifer Madonald, of Brooklyn, NY, and Johana Macdonald, of Los Angeles; granddaughter Monique De Alava, grandson Sergio Valdes; great grandson, Felix Emil of Jacksonville, FL.

She will be interred next to Sergio at Our Lady of Mercy Cemetery in Miami   A service to celebrate Olga’s life is delayed until the new year. Donations in her name may be sent to  Penn Medicine Hospice, c/o Michele Palamountain, 150 Monument Road, Suite 300, Bala Cynwyd, 19004.