Juana Almario Tablico Bagnol
April 14, 1929 - October 29, 2017
Juana Almario Tablico Bagnol (aka Jane, Juaning, Juanita), longtime Richmond District resident, passed away peacefully of natural causes in her San Francisco home on October 29, 2017 at 3:10pm. She was 88.
Born April 14, 1929, in Lumban, Laguna, Philippines, the youngest of five to Alvaro Tablico and Laureana Almario Tablico, Juana was a school teacher and in 1951 left for the new US territory of Guam to be the governess to the children of Carlton Skinner, Guam’s first American Governor. She once even met Eleanor Roosevelt on a visit. In 1953, Juana worked as a secretary after Gov. Skinner left office, but he provided Juana with papers to immigrate to Los Angeles where she became a US citizen.
She met her future husband Venancio Alngnog Bagnol at a bus stop. He was from the Philippine Consulate in Los Angeles while taking classes at then-Los Angeles State College (now CSU-LA) and was renting a room in the back of a house where Juana was renting a room in the front. She inquired about secretarial classes at LASC and they both ended up commuting to school. They became involved in LA’s St. Columban Catholic Church, and since Juana had no family in the US, the church became her family and she made lifelong friends there.
Juana and Venancio married in a lovely ceremony at St. Columban’s on April 12, 1958. They bought a house on West 41st Street in Los Angeles’ South Central district and spent their honeymoon painting it. There they had five children and she ran the household during her husband’s frequent assignments abroad, later petitioning a nephew and niece to the US to help with the kids. They moved to Canada in 1966 when her husband, now a Foreign Affairs officer in the Consulate, was transferred to Vancouver, and had a sixth child. Subsequent transfers moved them back to the States and eventually to Venancio’s final station at the Consulate in San Francisco in 1969.
San Francisco is where Juana’s family settled. She worked as a clerk at the US Postal Service for 38 years, enjoyed the fruits of her labor and put all six children through college, some through grad school. Upon retirement, she enjoyed planting purple roses in her backyard, having lunch with close friends from the post office, watching Warriors games, attending her grandchildren’s sporting events, dance and piano recitals, and graduations. Her proudest moments were witnessing five of her 13 grandchildren graduate from college so far. Juana is known for her love for purple, wearing that color all the time. Until this year, Juana continued to drive to her errands - Safeway, Costco and her doctor appointments at UCSF. As exercise, she enjoyed walking from the Cliff House to the Windmills which she and her late husband used to do together.
She is preceded in death by her stillborn son Victor, her niece Lolita Tablico Brown, and her husband Venancio. She is survived by her six children Van Bagnol (Elsa), Frances Bagnol-Gella (Christian Sr.), Joy BagnolEstudillo (Ken), Don Bagnol (Mai), Lulu Bagnol, and James Bagnol (Lisa); 13 grandchildren Jeremy and Allison Bagnol, Christian Jr., Dean, and Blake Gella, Kenneth Jordan “KJ”, Caitlin, and Zachary Estudillo, Kennedy, Tyler, and Reagan Bagnol, and Zabethah and Elijah Bagnol; nephew Zenon Sorromero; greatnephews Eric and Brandon Brown; and many nieces, nephews, and great-nieces and -nephews who have since come to the US.
Viewing, Vigil Services & Rosary - Nov. 9, 2017 4:30pm-9pm at Trinity Chapel at Cypress Lawn, Colma.
Funeral Mass - Nov. 10, 2017 10:30 am at St. Monica Church (23rd Ave & Geary Blvd in SF). Interment to Cypress Lawn following mass.