Luis Rosa Silveira was born on December 13, 1937, in Cedros, Faial, Azores, Portugal. He emigrated to California in 1959 and spent about two and a half years living and working in the Central Valley before returning to Portugal to visit his family. It was on that trip that he met Lina Lima. They dated a month, were engaged a month, and married on July 21, 1962. A month after the wedding, Luis returned to California alone — he still had two and a half years to go before earning his American citizenship, something he was proud of all his life. As soon as it was granted, he sent for his bride, and Lina joined him in America. In 1969, ten years after he first arrived in the United States, Luis and Lina started their own dairy farm in Merced, California. They spent the next twenty-four years there, where their three children were born and raised, and where they became part of a vibrant Portuguese immigrant community alongside so many dear friends. In 1993, they followed the Rocha family north to Oregon, dairy farming in Amity for eight years. They sold the dairy and retired to Tillamook in 2001, where Luis lived out the rest of his years surrounded by family and friends. He was a kind and loving father and a devout, faithful Catholic. He was funny, and not above being a smart aleck. The choices he made — to emigrate, to work hard, to love and remain faithful — reached people across two countries and several states, and no one more than his own family. All of it mattered to him. But his family mattered most, and he was so proud of them — of his children and their families.
He is survived by Lina, his wife of 64 years, who for several years cared for him tirelessly and with the utmost love and devotion, alongside Sarah and Joe and the Rocha grandsons, who tended to him with the same devotion. He is also survived by his son, Bob Silveira, and his wife, Connie, of Woodland, California; his daughters, Sandy Sherman and her husband, Scot, of Merced, California, and Tillamook’s own Sarah Rocha and her husband, Joe; nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren; his brother Antonio Silveira and his wife, Maria Olivia, of Cedros, Faial, Portugal; and his brother Augustine Silveira and his wife, Fernanda, of Turlock, California.
Services will be held Tuesday, August 11, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Tillamook. The Rosary will be prayed at 10:30 a.m., followed by the Funeral Mass at 11:00 a.m. A graveside service will follow immediately at Sacred Heart Cemetery in Tillamook. A reception will follow at the Elks Lodge in Tillamook.
