Marcos O. Tamayo Rodriguez

Marcos Orlando Tamayo Rodriguez died peacefully in his sleep January 7, 2023, at the exact age of 103 years and three months. Born in Santiago de Cuba, he lived in Camaguey, where his father Elias was the provincial sales chief for Ron Castillo, from about 1927 to about 1936, when the family returned to Santiago and settled there until 1961.

At various times in Cuba, Orlando was a coffee buyer for an uncle's company, a government coffee inspector in the Guantanamo area – where he met his wife, Ofelia de las Nieves Tendero Cisneros – as well as a paymaster at a manganese mine in Oriente province, a bookkeeper for a construction crew building a bridge over the Rio Frio in La Maya, Oriente, and then the Oriente provincial sales rep for a pharmaceutical company, a job he truly loved.

He played semi-pro baseball, and one of his admiring cousins once said he was the best shortstop in Santiago. But his son remembers playing ball with him and noticing he could barely throw 30 feet. He pitched as a 30-something in Cuba, Orlando said, and suffered a brazo caido – a fallen arm. Today, he would have needed Tommy John surgery. He was a baseball fanatic until the end, keeping close track of the Marlins' many woes and few victories.

Orlando and his family joined the many Cubans leaving the island in 1961 and settled in Bridgeport Ct., where Ofelia's sister and her family welcomed his family with open arms – and warm coats. Orlando and Ofelia were hard workers, true blue collars. He worked at the Remington Electric shaver factory in Bridgeport from the day after his arrival until he retired in 1985. Ofelia did piece-work sewing in a string of factories – brutal work – and they scrimped to put their only child through private high school and private university.

His son said he never heard anyone say anything bad about Orlando, and doesn't remember him even shouting at him, not even when he hooked into a school of bluefish in Bridgeport and filled the trunk of his dad's recently bought Ford Galaxy 500 with smelly fish. Orlando had to drive around Bridgeport, handing out free fish. He does remember Orlando crying his eyes out after their Bridgeport apartment building burned down around 1965 – just when the family was starting to live somewhat comfortably. He also remembers his father playing cards and pool for low stakes at the Cuban Club in Bridgeport – and usually winning.

He was predeceased by Ofelia (2008) and survived by his son, Juan O. Tamayo, daughter-in-law Grace M. Tamayo, grandchildren Alyda M. Tamayo and husband Cornelio Corrales Aguero and Marc O. Tamayo and wife Trisha Tamayo, and great granddaughter Mila G. Corrales. A special thanks to his angel caretakers, Doralia Almenares and Misleydis Simon del Mazo.