Lita Aguilar Nash
Oct. 7, 1922 - April 21, 2020 San Jose
Lita Aguilar Nash lived an extraordinary life, from her early years growing up in a train box car in San Francisco to owning her own business and, at the age of 84, becoming a spiritual healer.
As she often told her friends, “I have angels all around me.”
At the age of 97, she passed away surrounded by her loving children and grandchildren. Lita was a warm, wellrespected woman whose spiritual advice was a treasure to anyone she met. She had a way of deeply engaging every visitor and making each person feel special and better about themselves.
She was born Leonarda Aguilar in Reedley, California, shortly after her mother, Cenobia Aguilar Zavala and father, Leopoldo Aguilar, immigrated from Guanajuato, Mexico. A few years later, her parents moved the family to San Francisco, where they settled in a train box car on the site that is now the San Francisco Giants ballpark. In the 1930s, the family bought a home on 28th Street in Noe Valley, where Lita attended grade school and graduated from Commerce High in 1940. She went on to graduate from cosmetology school and open her own salon in San Francisco. While married to Gordon Hengst, they raised three children, Raymond, Donna and Gordon. Years later, she married Samuel Milton Nash and, in 1963, had another child, Maria. In the early 1970s, Lita, Samuel and their family lived in the San Mateo Highlands and Tucson, Arizona, before returning to the Bay Area’s Redwood Shores. In 1992, the couple retired and moved to San Jose. At the age of 72, Lita became a Reiki Healer and in 2006 (84 years young), became a Spiritual Healer, Inspirational Speaker Intuitive and Spiritualist Teacher, awarded by Pastor Patricia Johnston of the Redwood Spiritualist Church in Redwood City. She celebrated her 80th birthday in Cancun and her 90th in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, where she was always the life of the party!
Lita is predeceased by her husband Samuel Nash, her parents Cenobia and Leopoldo, a brother, Peter, and two sisters, Mercedes and Aurora. She is survived by her sister, Rita, daughters Donna Hengst and Maria Nash Vaughn (Issac), her sons Raymond Hengst (Sandy) and Gordon Hengst (Jean) and her precious grandchildren, Raymond Hengst Jr., Jeremy Hengst, Beauregard and Giselle Hengst, Jacqueline and Joseph Vaughn and many other family and friends. Thank you to the many friends who have sent their condolences and incredible stories of their time with her. A celebration of life will be announced on a future date. The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, please consider a contribution to the Feminist Majority Foundation in her name http://www.feminist.org. Or mail to: 1600 Wilson Blvd., Suite 801, Arlington, VA 22209