ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) – Robert Bocanegra, a longtime KRBC News Production Manager, passed away last week at the age of 85. For 25 years, he would use his talents and incredible people skills to serve the Big Country.
Dignity Memorial posted his obituary this week, leading to Bocanegra’s memorial service Thursday.
Robert Bocanegra (Sept. 1937 – Feb. 2023)
Robert Bocanegra was born September 12, 1937 in Edna, Texas. He would later meet ‘the love of his life,’ Antonia, and the happy couple would get married in Victoria, Texas on February 8, 1959, at 21 years old. The Bocanegras would have been married 64 years Wednesday.
In the 1970s, the couple relocated to Abilene to be closer to family. Over the next 40 years, the Bocanegras created a life together in the Big Country. From the mid-70s to 2000, Robert Bocanegra worked as a production manager for KRBC News.
Bocanegra’s obituary described him as a devout Catholic with the Knights of Columbus at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Abilene, and he was said to use his gifts to help bring financial aid to whomever needed assistance in his community.
“He loved hunting, fishing, bowling, and using his hands to build anything he could,” Bocanegra’s obituary read. “Chief among his passions was making the best brisket and ribs anyone has ever tasted. He found comfort in the simple pleasures, like sitting in his lawn chair in his immaculately manicured lawn, sipping a whiskey and coke, admiring his work. Neighbors would ask, ‘how do you make your lawn so lovely?’ He always had the same answer, ‘nothing special.’ But we all knew better. The same devotion he brought to everything he did, he applied to his yard.”
Bocanegra’s great legacy now lives on within his four children: Susan, Robert Jr., Sandra, and Michael Bocanegra. They were all raised in Abilene, but would eventually settle in the Austin area.
In 2000, the Robert and Antonia relocated to the Austin area to be closer to their children and their families. There, he was an active member of St. Catherine’s of Sienna and the Knights of Columbus.
Robert Bocanegra will be honored with a memorial service Thursday, February 9 from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. at Weed Corley Fish Funeral Home, on South Congress Avenue in Austin. He will be laid to rest at noon. Follow this link to learn more, or share memories and sympathies with the Bocanegra family.
All with KRBC, BigCountryHomepage.com, and KTAB express our deepest condolences to the Bocanegra family, and thank Robert for his many years of devotion to KRBC News.