Starkville-born Eva Sandoval remembered for lifelong community roots

Eva Christina Belarde Sandoval was one of those rare local figures whose life crossed nearly every place that still anchors daily life in Las Animas County. Born Dec. 24, 1941, in Starkville and remembered after her peaceful death on March 28, 2026, in Raton at age 84, she stayed connected to the borderland communities that shaped her.

Her story began in Starkville, one of the county’s coal camps by the 1890s, in a county that still stretches across 4,775 square miles and reaches toward Raton Pass, the historic corridor between southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. She attended Longfellow Elementary, St. Patrick’s Catholic Academy and Raton Junior High, then graduated from Raton High School in the Class of 1960, building the kind of school ties that lasted for decades.

After graduation, Sandoval went to work at her parents’ laundry, Steve’s White Way Laundry on Sugarite Avenue, placing her in the middle of the everyday routine that kept Raton moving. She married Gene Charles Sandoval on Jan. 13, 1962, after the two met while attending Raton High School. Together they raised ten children, and Sandoval’s role as a mother extended beyond her own household, including recognition as Den Mother of the Year for Cub Scout Pack 65 after the den won the Catholic Medal.

Her faith and service were just as central as her family life. Sandoval was a member of the Altar Society and the Majordomo’s of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, and she also cooked at St. Patrick’s Elementary and Raton High Schools. She worked in customer support at SunWest Bank and later served as site director for the Raton Senior Citizens Center, roles that kept her in contact with students, older residents and working families across town.

Sandoval also owned Eva’s Bakery downtown, where many residents knew her through the food she made and the fellowship she offered. She wrote poems about family, Christmas, Easter and other subjects, sharing them with relatives and friends as part of a life built around faith, memory and close ties. Her surviving children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren reflect the large family network she helped build in a county where institutions can fade but the people who hold them together still leave a lasting mark.