Lefy Vallecillo Ortiz The Rev. Lefy Erick Vallecillo Ortiz, former interim pastor at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Lampasas, died Jan. 4, 2009, at his residence in Temple following a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 46.

Funeral services are Jan. 10 at 3 p.m. at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Lampasas, followed by a fellowship meal. Visitation will be Jan. 9 from 6-8 p.m. at Dossman Funeral Home in Belton and two hours prior to the church service in Lampasas.

Mr. Vallecillo was born June 14, 1962, in Managua, Nicaragua, the son of Yolanda Ortiz Gutierrez and Luis Felipe Vallecillo Sanchez.

Following high school, he earned a degree in philosophy from a Jesuit seminary, and later received a degree in theology from La Facultad Teologica Hondurena in Honduras, where he became a professor of systematic theology.

While in Honduras, Mr. Vallecillo met his wife, Gloria, who was serving as a Lutheran missionary. They married Jan. 8, 1995.

The couple moved to the U.S. soon after, and Mr. Vallecillo served a Lutheran congregation in Willmar, Minn.

In June 1996, they moved to Chicago, Ill., where Mr. Vallecillo attended the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and launched the Lutheran Church of the Ascension, a Hispanic mission church.

In 1999, the family returned to Minnesota, where Mr. Vallecillo served another Lutheran congregation in Worthington.

In 2000, they moved to San Antonio where he completed two years of residency as a pastoral chaplain and later worked in oncology at Methodist Hospital in San Antonio. He also served as an emergency room doctor.

He became a naturalized U.S. citizen on Dec. 7, 2001.

After his residency, Mr. Vallecillo worked as chaplain for Vitas Hospice in San Antonio while completing requirements for ordination in the Episcopal Church. He was ordained as an Episcopal priest on Sept. 9, 2006.

Following that, the family moved to Temple where Mr. Vallecillo was a chaplain for VistaCare Hospice until October 2007.

He then served as interim pastor in Lampasas from February 2007 to March 2008.

Survivors include his wife of Temple; a son and daughter of Temple, Rommel and Grace; family from Mexico that includes daughters Raquel Emilia Vallecillo Lopez and Maria Paola Vallecillo Ramirez, his mother, brothers Felix and Luis Felipe Vallecillo Ortiz and their families, sisters Reyna Isabel Sanchez Garcia, Damaris Vallecillo Ortiz, Julia Haydee Ortiz Gutierrez and families, and three grandchildren.

Other survivors are sisters and brothers-in-law Linda and Richard Pontsler, Jo Lanier, Charmaigne Woods, Pamela and Mark Firle, Janet Drews and Herbert Drews Jr., and numerous nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his father and his grandparents.

Memorials may be made to Leiomyosarcoma Direct Research Foundation at www.lmsdr.org or to the charity of one's choice.

Arrangements by Dossman Funeral Home of Belton.