1973

santaclaramagazine@gmail.com

Loretta Edita Cabacungan Silvagni ’73 passed away on Jan. 15 at her home in Napa. Loretta was born in the San Antonio barrio of Narvacon Ilocos Sur in the Philippines in 1950, and moved to San Jose, Calif., when she was 5 years old. After graduating as the salutatorian of her class at Lincoln High School, she attended Santa Clara University, where she met her future husband, Steven Silvagni ’73. They married and attended graduate school together at San Diego State University. Loretta and Steven moved to Napa together in 1978. She worked many different jobs as a licensed clinical social worker over the years, ranging from employment at the Napa State Hospital, having her own successful private therapy practice, teaching at Pacific Union College, and therapy and mentoring in Napa Valley Unified School District. She loved singing and participated in the St. Thomas Aquinas Church Choir and the Napa Valley College Chorale. She was a fourth-degree black belt (Yodan) in jujitsu and provided many years of service to the American Judo and Jujitsu Federation as manager of examinations. As sensei of her own dojo, Napa Valley Jujitsu, she shared her love of the sport with her students who ranged in age from 5 and 6 to those in their 50s and 60s. In the last few years of her life, Loretta suffered from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) which slowly robbed her of the ability to do all of the activities she loved. But nothing about the disease changed the love she had for her family, which surrounded her until the end. She is survived by her beloved husband, Steven Silvagni; her mother, Angela Cabacungan; her daughters, Sarah DeFelice and Teresa Silvagni, and their husbands, Marcus DeFelice and Ryan Nuez; and her two grandsons, who loved taking rides on Nonna’s chair  Marcus DeFelice, II, and Dominic Nuez. She is also survived by cousins in the Cabacugan and Raymundo families, as well as many other friends and relatives. 

08 Nov 2018