Obituary of Dora Elva Dovalina

Dora Elva Codina Dovalina (April 3, 1936 – June 17, 2023) lived in Mission, Texas, born into a tightknit family, the second of four children. She went to school in Mission, went on to nursing school in Austin, and returned to Mission to marry and raise a family of her own. She and David Dovalina raised four children. Dora was a musician. She recounted playing the piano at night when she was growing up, at a time when everyone left their windows open so everyone in the neighborhood could hear the concert. She began playing the organ in church at age 13 years at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church. She played the organ at St. Paul’s Catholic Church after she married, playing there until October 2022 when she was 86 years old. Dora gave the gift of music to countless church members, introducing new music and playing old favorites as well, playing for the choir and for cantors. Music was central. David said that they got married and bought a bed and a piano. Dora also taught CCE (Catholic Christian Education) classes for many years for young people. She was an involved parent, leading and helping with the Girl Scouts, with St. Paul’s school activities and carnivals, and with other activities for her children.

Dora was very interested in genealogy, diligently researching family history and connections long before computers made the work easier. For years she traveled to churches and libraries to find birth certificates, baptismal certificates, and any piece of information that would add to the tapestry of family stories for both the Codina and Dovalina families. She painstakingly created both family trees by hand, sharing her research and love of genealogy with everyone, sharing interesting details that made the history and story come to life. She continued this work until her last years.

Family was important to Dora. Many family gatherings over the years brought the next generations into the traditions and the group. From Easter gatherings with cascarones and volleyball to Christmas gatherings with pan de polvo and finally to twenty years of The Family Reunion (which saw the return of cascarones and volleyball), Dora’s Codina family always came together with laughter and love. Visits to the ranch in Laredo and hunting for arrowheads (Dora’s specialty) brought the Dovalina family together with laughter and love. Dora was surrounded by family on her final day, surrounded by laughter and love before she entered into her peaceful transition.

Dora was preceded in death by her parents Joaquin Codina and Antonia Longoria Codina, sisters and brothers-in-law Emma Lamar Vela (Rolando) and Rosa Maria Huerta (Pete). She is survived by her brother Jake Codina (Irma), children Linda Anders (Glenn), Norma Reyes (Richard), David Dovalina (Le), and Luis Dovalina (Iris), grandchildren Joaquin Anders-Helmick (Sami), Cassie Anders (Whitney), Kelly Reyes Salas (Abraham), Michelle Reyes, Logan Dovalina, and Lucas Dovalina, and brothers-in-law Daniel Dovalina (Roseanne), Ernesto Dovalina (Margaret), sister-in-law Norma Leal (Arturo), and many cousins, nieces, and nephews.

A Celebration of Life will be held for Dora on Friday, July 14, 2023, at 10:00 am, at St. Paul Catholic Church, in Mission, Texas, with Rev. Father Isaac E. Erondu officiating. Interment to follow at San Jose Cemetery in Mission, Texas.