Gisela M.E. Sotomayor

Gisela Sotomayor of Ridgecrest, California, passed away peacefully in her home with her family by her side on Thursday, March 03, 2022, at the age of 78 after battling cancer for more than four years.

Gisela was born on October 15, 1943, in the town of Waldenburg in the province of Silesia in Germany to Hans Loebus and Irmgard Wojanowski. She was the youngest of three.

As a young woman, she apprenticed as a milliner, making hats for a fashionable boutique on the Kurfuerstendamm. In 1966, she married her husband, Rigoberto Sotomayor, an Air Force sergeant originally from Nicaragua. Rigo Sotomayor and her oldest brother Georg Loebus had been roommates at Hanscom AFB in Massachusetts, so she liked to say she was properly introduced to her future husband in her mother's parlor. Her first child was born later in 1966 in France and her second in 1969 in Victorville.

Rigo and Gisela moved to Ridgecrest in 1990 after living for some time overseas in Berlin and then in Northern California. She became a US citizen in 1996. Gisela was part of the original Walmart crew here in Ridgecrest, and retired from Walmart after 15 years in 2005.

Gisela loved the desert. She was active in WACOM, the Oasis Garden Club, the Quilt Guild, the Desert Empire Fair, and other activities in town. She was known for her generous spirit and her sense of humor, as well as her eye for color whether in the garden or in a quilt.

Gisela was a loving wife, mother, and grandmother. She was widowed in 2009. She is survived by her daughters, Sylvia Sotomayor and Vivian Sotomayor Ouramdane, and her brothers, Georg Loebus and Guenter Loebus, and their respective families.