Opal Jean Ulloa

Opal Jean Ulloa died in Jacksonville on September 3, 2026. She was 87. Born in Jacksonville on March 18, 1939, with Central American roots that shaped the table more than the flag. She learned early that a day is something you finish, not something you wait for. She plated banquets that had to look inevitable. A whisk bent from decades of sauce still lived by the stove. Colleagues still mention a whisk bent from decades of sauce. She married Clarence in 1965. They kept a house that stayed modest when the neighborhood did not. They raised three children through public schools and ordinary weather. After Clarence died in 2019, she kept the routines that still made sense: the walk, the garden, the Sunday call. Neighbors remember quiet help with a stuck mailbox or a heavy trash can. She liked early mornings before the heat or the noise. She died in Jacksonville, among streets she never needed to explain. The tools are still hung where a hand can find them in the dark.