Maria Cabral

Maria do Nascimento Medeiros Cabral

Maria do Nascimento Medeiros Cabral, 96, passed away on January 25, 2023, surrounded by family. Maria was born in Pedreira do Nordeste, Sao Miguel, Azores, Portugal to Antonio Pacheco Medeiros and Maria do Rosario Sousa Medeiros on March 10, 1926.

As a young child, Maria attended school in the Pedreira. At age 12, she learned how to make women’s hats. Four years later she learned to become a seamstress, and by the age of 17 she was making clothing for men, women, and children.

December 31, 1947, she married the love her life, Charles Cabral, and together they raised a beautiful family. After being apart for over a year, Maria joined Charles in the United States in 1951 with their eldest son. They spent a few years in the Napa and Sonoma area where she worked as a seamstress at Rough Rider Jeans and cooked for the farmhands that worked with her husband in the area. In 1954, the family settled in Galt where they started a dairy and raised their children.

Maria was a devout Catholic and was a long-time member of St. Christopher’s Catholic Church in Galt. She was a wonderful mother to her four children and an extremely loving grandmother to her six grandchildren. Until recent years, holidays were spent at the Cabral house where there was plenty of delicious food, lots of love, and her famous apple pie. She was known for her delightful Portuguese cuisine and heart-warming soups. Maria loved to cook, bake, garden, sew, crochet and simply be with her family.

Maria is survived by her children – Antonio (Vonnie) Cabral, Charles (Linda) Cabral, Alda (Brian) Paine and Maria Cabral Spannuth; six grandchildren – Elise Cabral Young, Thomas (Lauren) Spannuth, Benjamin Spannuth, Denelle Paine, Alexa Cabral (Scott) Mahon, and Suzanne (Gabriel) Mabalot; great grandchildren – Jordan and Kristin Young, and Meadow Mabalot; and great great grandchild – Lochlan Young; and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.

She is preceded in death by her loving husband, her parents, and son-in-law Allen Spannuth.

Friends and family are invited to a visitation on Monday, February 20th from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Ben Salas Funeral Home. A Recitation of the Holy Rosary will be said at 10:30 a.m. at St. Christopher’s Catholic Church on Tuesday, February 21st with a Mass of Christian Burial celebrated at 11 a.m. followed by committal at the Galt Arno Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Maria’s memory to St. Christopher’s Catholic Church, 950 S. Lincoln Way, Galt, CA 95632. 

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