Brigid

Ortiz

Brigid Bannan Ortiz (neé Brigid Ann Bannan) entered eternal rest at the age of 86 on August 6, 2025 in Hollister, California. Brigid was born on October 13, 1938 in New Britain, Connecticut to John and Grace Bannan. The eldest of the four Bannan sisters, Brigid grew up in Indian Orchard, Massachusetts. She graduated from Mercy Nursing School in Springfield, Massachusetts and then received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Boston College.

Brigid's nursing career brought her to care and advocate for patients across the country. She first moved to Lancaster, California to work as a nurse in a prison. She met her husband, Lorenzo (Jack) Ortiz in California. In 1966, they were married in Massachusetts and then started a family in Connecticut. Over the years, Brigid worked as a nurse in an assisted living facility and in a veteran's hospital, and as a healthcare facility auditor for the state of Ohio. In addition to Connecticut, Jack's career took them to Michigan and Ohio. They retired to Minnesota and California so they could spend time with their children and grandchildren. They were married for 59 and a half years. She was extraordinarily proud of her children, Laura and John, and she was dedicated to staying in touch with her extended family across the country.

Brigid had the opportunity to travel worldwide—at first with friends, and later with her husband and children. After high school graduation, she and her friends drove across the U.S., eventually buying a used car in South Dakota when their original car failed. After college graduation, Brigid and her friends traveled to Europe in the early 1960s, making a trip to the Berlin Wall where she convinced a soldier to start dismantling the wall so she could have a souvenir. (This was after she smuggled ham across the barrier in her trench coat.) She traveled with Jack and their children throughout the United States to the East Coast, Texas, California, and Hawaii. Brigid and Jack traveled to Argentina in 1980 on a business trip to deliver a Boeing 747 (with Pratt & Whitney engines) to the national airline. Jack and Brigid visited many more states in their retirement and also made a trip to Ireland. Brigid's love of travel will live on in her granddaughters, through whom she explored the world vicariously later in life.

No matter where she lived, Brigid was deeply involved in her community, from leading Girl Scout troops to teaching catechism at church, running a coffee club for the elderly, and volunteering at the food bank. Her Catholic faith remained important to her throughout her life. Brigid was notorious for her system of mailing cards to every child in her extended family for birthdays, first Communions, and graduations. However, Brigid is best known for feeding everyone who needed a meal and for always having a token relating to each of her loved ones' passions around the house. She also loved collecting tidbits of family history, cataloging facts and artifacts with meticulous, handwritten notes.

Brigid's own passion was her grandkids, who knew her as "Nana" and to whom she dedicated countless hours of teaching in the kitchen, helping in the classroom, and finding adventures around town. She encouraged her grandchildren always to try new foods with the assurance that they could "spit it on the floor" if they didn't care for it—her kitchen, her rules. She always invented creative ways to include her grandchildren in in the important activities of hosting family dinners and choosing birthday gifts for neighbors in need. In her retirement, Brigid brought her love of reading to elementary school classrooms in Minnesota and California, creating traditions in school curricula that continue to this day.

Brigid always had a keen eye for the unique talents and contributions of the people around her, and she made sure to point them out with sincerity. She shared her wit freely and found mirth in every situation. We will deeply miss her laughter and her compassion.

Brigid is preceded in death by her father John Bannan, her mother Grace Bannan, her sister Beth Bannan Wallace, and her grandson Kevin Goetzke. She is survived by her husband Lorenzo (Jack) Ortiz, her daughter Laura Ortiz, her son John Ortiz (Tami), her granddaughters Brianna Goetzke, Faith Goetzke, Alexandra Ortiz, and Magdalena Ortiz, her sisters Brenda Bannan Fitzgerald and Bonnie Peterson (Tom), and many nieces and nephews.

Funeral Mass will be celebrated at Sacred Heart Parish in Hollister, CA on August 11, 2025 at 11am PT. Future date of internment at Guardian Angels Catholic Cemetery in Oakdale, Minnesota to be announced.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to your local food bank.