Lori Naudin Truly
Lori Lee Naudin Truly, a long-time resident and visitor in Ajijic, passed away peacefully on September 6, 2023 at the Christopher House Hospice in Austin, Texas surrounded by family and friends, after a courageous battle with cancer.
She will be remembered by family and local friends at a Celebration of Life scheduled for Saturday, January 6.
Lori was an exceptional artist and shining spirit whose ready smile lit up the room and the world.
She was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania on April 16, 1964. During high school years she was accepted to the prestigious Pennsylvania Governor’s School for Arts. After high school she moved to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, going on to study and graduate from Savannah College of Art and Design. She experimented with many different forms of art in her life, studying at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, as well as the School for Visionary Arts in Vienna, Austria. She was a master of trompe l’oeil painting.
In 1992, she met David Truly, a co-owner of a local nightclub and a musician in Hilton Head. They married in 1993 and moved to Columbia, South Carolina, where Lori worked on television and film sets and began her career as a muralist. After David finished his doctorate and accepted a position at Central Connecticut State University, Lori worked at the legendary Goodspeed Opera House and the Kidcity Children’s Museum in Middletown. She created sculptures and painted murals throughout the northeast United States, working with many other accomplished artists.
Lori’s passion for art was only surpassed by her love for Mexico, a love that developed on her three-month honeymoon with David when they drove from South Carolina to Guatemala. They learned about Lake Chapala’s expatriate community during that trip and returned in 1997 when David did his research work on international retirement migration. Lori developed a deep affection for Ajijic during numerous visits there. They returned in 2007 on David’s sabbatical with their two toddlers, and that’s when Lori decided that was an ideal place to raise her youngsters.
During the couple’s stints in Ajijic Lori painted several murals throughout the lakeside community and became active in teaching art to children. She practiced and taught yoga and could always be found dancing to the music of the Tallboys Band. She was known for her astounding impersonations of rock star Janis Joplin. She loved children and strays, both animal and human, and will be missed by all who had the privilege of knowing her.
Lori is survived by her husband David, daughter Tally, son Jensen, father Ken Naudin and sister Tracy Naudin.
The January 6 Celebration of Life for Lori will be held at 2:30 p.m. on the waterfront grounds of Jardín Las Palmas, located on the east end of San Antonio Tlayaºcapan, off Prolongación La Paz. Live music, beer, and wine will be provided. Guests are invited to bring a picture of themselves with Lori, a white candle, finger foods, and any other liquid refreshments they prefer. Willing friends are asked to share a brief uplifting story about Lori.
Loyal Truman Rhodes Snyder
Loyal Truman Rhodes Snyder died peacefully of a heart condition at home in Zapopan on December 23 in the care of his husband Guillermo Cabrera.
Until just a few weeks before his death, Snyder was an energetic volunteer at St. Mark’s Anglican/Episcopal Church in Guadalajara, which he had attended since approximately 2008, when he retired and moved to Guadalajara. His sister, Marlo Snyder of Texas, explained that working for the Episcopal Church, of which he was a lifelong member, was her brother’s passion, and that he had considered becoming a priest.
Loyal Snyder was born in Seattle in 1938. His father died when he was young. He attended St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Seattle and was educated at the University of Washington, where he studied political science and administrative law.
He served in the U.S. military, traveling by ship to such places as Indochina. He worked in the U.S. Senate as a staff counselor and for Sen. Warren Magnuson, who was Washington state’s longest-serving senator. He also worked for the regulatory commission that organized and put in place Amtrak, the national passenger railroad, and for the Washington, D.C. Metro Transit Authority light-rail system in an information-technology capacity. He adopted a Mexican boy, Martin Snyder, who went into dentistry.
In Guadalajara after retirement, Loyal worked tirelessly for the Iglesia Anglicana Diocesis de Occidente and for St. Mark’s Church. He also enjoyed cooking, studying Spanish, in which he progressed greatly, and giving English classes as a volunteer. He will be remembered in Guadalajara for his energy, intelligence and “loyalty” to Anglican institutions. His husband Guillermo told this newspaper that he knew Loyal as a happy and very independent person.
He was preceded in death by his parents and brother, Royal. He is survived by his husband Guillermo, son Martin, sister Marlo, four nieces and a nephew.
A memorial service for him will be held Sunday, December 31, 3:30 p.m., at St. Mark’s Anglican Church, Chichimecas 836 at Aztecas. His cremated remains will be placed in St. Mark’s “Peace Garden.”
The Reverend Manuel Sonora Macias
The Reverend Manuel Sonora Macias—teacher, lecturer, author and priest in the Anglican Church of Mexico and, before that, the Methodist Church of Mexico—died bravely and peacefully on December 24, in the ISSSTE hospital in Zapopan, in the company of friends, including longtime partner Isaias Martinez, after a debilitating illness from which he suffered for about a year.
Manuel was born in Mexico City in 1939. He was an only child and his mother died when he was young, so he was raised by two aunts, who were religious and strict and wished him to associate only with others of a similarly high class. Friends say this led Manuel to surmount restrictions by devoting himself to study at an early age, rather than living a conventional childhood.
His education was entirely within the Methodist Church and he received a degree from the Seminario Metodista Dr. Gonzalo Baez Comargo in Mexico City. He went on to teach English for years at various levels, to youngsters and at the university level at the prestigious Instituto Politecnico Nacional in Mexico City. During these years he got married.
In July 1978, at the age of about 40, he was ordained a priest and was associated for years with various congregations including the stately, 122-year-old El Mesias-Balderas Methodist church in Mexico City. He described the atmosphere in the Mexican Methodist Church as “moderately fundamentalist” and wrote that he began to find onerous the emphasis at that time on “mortal sins” and hell and the avoidance of liturgy, vestments, the Virgin Mary, television, movies, etcetera. He became attracted to the liturgy in the Episcopal/Anglican Church of Mexico and, as he wrote, the “freedom to decide what was good and what was bad or ‘sinful’.” He finally made a switch that he describes as a “conversion,” which, he added, was difficult and controversial. He was associated with Christ Church, an Anglican/Episcopal church in Mexico City.
Leaving Mexico City, he came in 2003 to become pastor of St. Mark’s Anglican/Episcopal church, built in 1967 in Guadalajara. He described the challenge of the job as similar to “an American getting a job as mayor of Tlaquepaque” but added that he appreciated the openness of his American congregation, who “clearly told me their opinions so I didn’t have to guess.” He remained at St. Mark’s for seven years, providing stability and instituting a Mass in Spanish, among other contributions. Due to his wide knowledge, he lectured at academic, religious institutions in Guadalajara. He published several books in Spanish on religious and Anglican themes. At that time, he said he began to see his ministry as an outreach to gays in Guadalajara, which he dubbed the “San Francisco of Mexico,” and he gave religious talks to groups focused on sexual orientation.
He is regarded with great affection by many people, who remember him as kind, flexible and intelligent. A memorial service will be held Saturday, December 30, 5 p.m., at St. Mark’s Anglican church, Chichimecas 836 at Aztecas, near the new U.S. Consulate in Guadalajara. His cremated remains will be placed in St. Mark’s “Peace Garden.” Bishop Ricardo Gomez of the Iglesia Anglicana Diocesis de Occidente will officiate.