Juaquin Vaca, 95, passed away peacefully to enter the gates of heaven Saturday morning, August 15 at Scott and White Hospital, Temple.

Juaquin was born August 16, 1930 and was the oldest child of Carmen and Petra Canava Vaca. As he would say, he was born under a cotton stalk out on a ranch in Salado.

His siblings included Bartolo (Joaquina), Elida Chapa (Mingo), Caleb (Anna), Moises (Belia) and Noemi Magallanes.

As a young cowboy, he attended Salado Elementary where he was the 1st grade fire chief until there was a true fire & he was the first one out of his building. Soon after he was relieved from duty & never sought to be a firefighter again.

He loved his Snickers and thought he hit the jackpot one day walking home from school while in 2nd grade when he found a quarter and was able to buy a Snickers everyday for five days, as they only cost a nickel in those days. Ironically, Snickers was introduced in America in 1930 and was named after the family's favorite horse.

In his youth, Juaquin worked on the ranch alongside his Daddy, rising early to have coffee with him, a love he would pass on to his children and generations to come. He loved working with horses on the ranch and training them, even showing off his skills to the doctor his father worked for, who would compliment the young cowboy on his excellent horse training skills.

Along with horses, he also worked the fields and with the livestock. He said his chaps were never pretty because cows didn’t care what color you wore and he never had any fun in chaps.

Juaquin never finished high school as his father broke his arm and the teen had to bring in the crops that year. It didn’t keep him from learning, but rather later he always encouraged all his children to get an education.

In 1948 he met the love of his life, when he was Joseph and she was Mary in the church Christmas play. On February 6, 1949 he married Naomi Arriaga. Wedding pictures were taken that day which included his baby brother and her baby sister sitting on the ground in front of the couple. No one could predict, years later, those two babies would also marry.

Juaquin was very proud that he was baptized and raised in the First Mexican Baptist Church, Belton. A church his father was a founding member of, where he later met his wife, married her and the couple raised and baptized their seven children. He also became a deacon there, spending his entire life as a member of one congregation.

The couple enjoyed being parents and grandparents, often seen at Marching 100 events, UT softball, t-ball games, other sports and traveling throughout Texas and the U.S. attending various events. Juaquin enjoyed reading his Bible each night at 9 p.m. and had read it from cover to cover a myriad of times. He enjoyed rodeos and horse races and even picked American Pharaoh to win the year he attended the Kentucky Derby.

The couple raised seven children: Carlos (Carol) from Florence, Lydia (Henry) Nache from Silvis, Il., Alice (Dean) DePoy from Belton, Elva (George) Peyrot from Plano, Edward (Nancy) from Euless, Rebecca (Manuel) Alcozer from Belton and Olga (Chuck) Durr from Kerrville.

Juaquin had 18 grandchildren, 18 great grandchildren and 13 great-great grandchildren, with a set of twins due in December. He so enjoyed watching college football and rooting for all the colleges his children and grandchildren attended. His oldest grandsons, one a Longhorn graduate and the other an Aggie graduate, would often ask Grandpa to pray for their team to win that big rivalry game.

He was preceded in death by his loving wife, Naomi Vaca and his son Carlos Vaca, who passed twenty days prior. Also, his son in law George Peyrot, and grandchildren Scott Vaca and Anita Nache. As well as his brothers Bartolo and Caleb Vaca and sister Elida Chapa.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks for contributions to be made in honor of Juaquin C. Vaca to the Belton Education Foundation, www.beltoneducationfoundation.org/student-scholarships/.

Funeral arrangements will be at Harper Talasek in Belton Friday, August 21, with the viewing at 12:30 p.m and the service at 2 p.m., followed by burial at North Belton Cemetery.