Mario Fernando Garcia's Obituary
Mario Fernando Garcia was born in Los Angeles, California March 21, 1964, at the Queen of Angels Hospital. He’s the fourth child of six children from the union of Guadalupe V. Garcia and Yolanda Garcia. At an earlier age Mario was always a very independent person who always wanted to complete things all by himself without anyone help.
When Mario was 9 years old he was fascinated with gardening. He planted an entire vegetable garden in his back yard and maintained it throughout the earlier years. One year he decided he wanted to grow watermelon, so after planting the seeds and watering every day for 2 months, he was frustrated because nothing was growing. So one night Mario’s mother and father went to the grocery store and purchased a watermelon and stuck it right in the middle of the watermelon patch. When he woke up the next morning, he did his usual routine of heading out to water his garden, and noticed the watermelon. He was so excited, he ran back into the house screaming “I finally grew a watermelon!” never noticing no veins were attached to the watermelon. It was one of his biggest achievements until his parents told him the truth later on in life about the watermelon.
When Mario became a teenager, his first job was working at a gas station on the corner of Painter and Telegraph. This is where his passion for working on cars, particularly admiring classic cars began. In his teen years, Mario owned a 1967 Chevy Impala and on the weekends would cruise Whittier Boulevard with all his friends. Mario also enjoyed going to the Classic Car Shows on Route 66, along with the Classic Car Shows in Las Vegas.
… as told by those who loved him
I love and miss you so much! Hanging out in Long Beach and cursing Whittier Boulevard together and crashing at each other’s houses. When needed you were my riding and driving buddy to and from New Mexico, and helping me with our tribal research. My fondest memories of my brother Mario were when we were teenagers and how we would boost our favorite groups’ albums. He boosted Parliament Funkadelic, Bootsy Collins, George Clinton, and the Ohio Players to name a few. Over the years, somehow I ended up with all these albums, and weeks before he passed I called him up and shared that I bought a turntable with a Bluetooth and was playing all his albums he had boosted and he just laughed. I will miss our brother and sister time together but I have all of our precious memories of boosting our first albums before being able to buy them. – Lorraine Garcia
One of my most favorite memories that I have of my father would be one from my childhood. When I was younger we moved from Whittier to Rowland Heights. For the first few weeks I and my sister kept attending school in Whittier. My dad would wake us up early every morning and drive us back over the mountain so we could go to school. What I enjoyed the most about those rides was on most mornings me and my sister would get to watch the sunrise over the LA skies with my dad as we passed thru the Colima mountain pass. Another thing that I enjoyed about those early morning drives was that after we made it over that mountain my dad always stopped in uptown Whittier at the Burger King. He always bought me and my sister the sausage, egg, and cheese croissant breakfast meal making sure we didn’t go to school hungry. – Mario M. Garcia
Another good memory that I have about my dad was driving with him out Turnbull Canyon at a younger age. It didn’t matter if we were going out there to pick some avocados off this tree branch that hung over someone’s backyard fence. Sometimes we’d go out there and walk along the riverbed that leads upward to the top of the canyon. We’d walk along the bed just collecting recyclable’s that people left behind over the weekend partying. Many times we’d just go out there for the drive. – Mario M. Garcia / Nicole K. Garcia
One of my fondest memories I have of my dad is of picture day. My Dad was trying to comb my hair and got frustrated because it was tangled, so he grabbed a pair of scissors and was going to cut my hair off. He had turned from hairstylist to barber in an instant. Then Steve pulled him aside and told him to calm down and not to worry. As it turned out, everything did work out fine and that’s one of my best school picture I’ve ever taken. – Nicole K. Garcia
Mario was Husband, Father, Son, Brother, and Uncle and he loved everyone the same. Mario was also a Navy man. We used to just take a drive down to San Diego to take tours of the ships. Mario was the first person always offering to help if someone was in trouble, or just needed to talk. There are so many stories I can tell you about Mario Fernando Garcia or as I called him Babe the only thing left to say is that he will be missed and that I will always Love You.
Those left to celebrate his memory are: Mother/Father (Guadalupe V. Garcia, and Yolanda Garcia) Two Sisters (Lorraine Garcia-Nolasco, and Terry Garcia) One Brother (Jeffery Garcia) Son/Daughter (Mario M. Garcia, and Nicole K. Garcia), Grand Children (Charles Henry David Finch, Lauren Cecilia Garcia), Nieces/Nephew (Ruben Emmanuel Garcia, Anastasha Arzola, Mercy Paulina Arzola, Joseph Daniel Garcia) Brother-In-Law (Carlos Nolasco), and Partner for 25 years (Stephen Williams).
What’s your fondest memory of Mario?
What’s a lesson you learned from Mario?
Share a story where Mario's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Mario you’ll never forget.
How did Mario make you smile?
