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Life story

" Osbaldo Frescas was the second son born to Maria Frescas de Quezada and Encarnacion Frescas. He was born in Calexico, CA, but his family would eventually settle in Los Angeles, CA. His father worked on the railroads and was part of the team that would later build Union Station in Los Angeles, and his mother was an accomplished seamstress who cut fabric for suits in East Los Angeles. He learned to speak English around the age of five, and helped his parents navigate their lives in California.

After he graduated from high school, he joined the US Air Force. He was initially sent to Japan where he was a courier for an intelligence command. He loved Japan, its culture and food. He maintained a fascination for it, his entire life. After his tour in Japan, he continued his intelligence work in Korea during the Korean war. Following his discharge from the Air Force, he moved back to Los Angeles. He went to work for Chrysler in their automotive plant, but during a layoff, he took a temporary job at the Royal typewriter company. It is here where he met the love of his life, Virginia Ruth McAdams. They would marry five months after their first date. A year later, they would welcome their only son, Stewart Paul, followed by Catherine Maria and Christine Ione. Seven years after Christine‘s birth, they would complete their family with the birth of Maria Teresa. The family would stay in Los Angeles until 1971 when the Chrysler factory where he worked, closed. They then moved to Indiana, eventually settling in Noblesville. Small town life in the midwest was very different from their life in Los Angeles, but the Frescas family fully embraced their new home. In 1973, Osbaldo won the local fishing competition. He retired from Chrysler in 1987 with 33 years of service. They would stay in Noblesville until 2006, when they moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia to be closer to their only granddaughter, Victoria Catherine Illingworth. Osbaldo and Virginia traveled extensively in North America visiting Canada, Mexico, and all of the continental United States. They especially loved going to Las Vegas, Osbaldo’s “happy place.” They also enjoyed camping and taking blue highways, stopping, along the way to visit museums and sample the local cuisine.

Osbaldo was a creative man. He was an accomplished artist. His paintings are treasured by his family, and his work was exhibited numerous times at Del Ray Artisans' Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia. He also had an active imagination. To entertain his children he would make up fanciful stories about ball berings, hay bales, and cardboard kitties. He also created a game where he would invent expansive etymologies to words and challenge his family to guess the real story. Osbaldo was only able to take a few college courses while in the Air Force, but he was an avid reader, a love he shared with his children, and would remain a lifelong learner.

He was always interested in fitness. His good health would sustain him in the later years after he was diagnosed with dementia. He spent the last of a day of his life with all of his children, his eldest grandson, Christopher William Tierney, and his loving wife. He had a long, eventful life and a loving family. You can’t ask for more than that. He will be missed by all.

Osbaldo is preceded in death by his parents, and his brother Hector. He is survived by his wife, children, three grandchildren (Christopher, Patrick Ryan Tierney, and Victoria), great granddaughter, Aaliyah Fallon Tierney, and great grandson, Devin Farrell."