‘Full of life:’ Carson High’s Rodriguez celebrated Saturday

Family members and community members remembered Carson High School freshman Lexi Paige Rodriguez for her sweet spirit and her generosity at her celebration of life Saturday at Fitzhenry’s Funeral Home.

Most who attended wore shades of pink and grieved for Rodriguez, 14. Rodriguez was struck and killed by a vehicle while crossing North Carson Street at Nye Lane at 5:40 p.m. Jan. 28.

Members of Lexi’s family, including Katherine Rodriguez, her mother, and younger brothers, Paul, 10, and Trinidad, 6, and other relatives expressed gratitude for the community’s outpouring of support through visitation and attendance at her services.

“The community’s been awesome,” Katherine Rodriguez said. “They’ve been very nice, very kind. It’s overwhelming.”

Carson High School and local businesses provided financial and emotional support in the past month through fundraisers, all of which have supported the family during this time.

Pastors Gavin Jarvis and Chuck Mann of Living Stones Church, where the Rodriguez family has been active in Carson City, provided messages of encouragement about Lexi’s faith. Poems also were read to honor her legacy.

Geno Fitzgerald, a family friend through Living Stones, gave Lexi’s eulogy. He recounted the teen, a devoted cheerleader, had enjoyed creating TikTok videos and a passion for makeup.

Jessica Garcia / Nevada Appeal

Family neighbor and Living Stones Church friend Geno Fitzgerald gives his condolences to Katherine Rodriguez, mother of Carson High School freshman Lexi Rodriguez.

 

Lexi, born June 26, 2009, lived in Visalia, Cutler, and Dinuba, Calif., before eventually moving to Carson City less than three years ago.

“Lexi was generous to everybody,” Fitzgerald said, sharing the Mother’s Day gifts and money. “…Everyone knew Lexi was sassy and classy, but she was also timid and respectful. … Lexi was a good listener. You could share everything with her. Lexi was fearless, maybe to a fault. Her first time on a skateboard, you couldn’t keep up with her.”

Louisa Valenzuela, Lexi’s cousin from Tulare, Calif., called her “beautiful.”

 “She was full of life, and she had her whole life ahead of her. She was just a princess. She’d be in the makeup industry,” Valenzuela said. “She’d probably be a model. She was just like her mom, very smart, beautiful. … She’s really going to be missed.”

A graveside service for Lexi was held with a carriage processional bringing her casket to Lone Mountain Cemetery. Following the service, a reception at the Brewery Arts Center offered community members another opportunity to share memories of Lexi.

Katherine shared at the center the impact Lexi had on her brothers, especially on Trinidad, describing how difficult it’s been without Lexi for him. She had been protective and generous to both.

Jessica Garcia / Nevada Appeal

Lexi Rodriguez’s casket is loaded onto a carriage and prepared for a processional to be taken to Lone Mountain Cemetery Saturday.

 

“He’s lost another parent,” she said. “She brushed his teeth. She put him to bed.”

But although to her mother Lexi was “perfect” — “I carried her in my womb,” she told the Appeal with a smile — she hopes the driving community won’t forget to slow down and prevent future accidents.

“I don’t want anyone to forget about Lexi next month, and right now everyone who passes by, they see her balloons it’s fresh, they’re all driving a little cautious,” she said. “But what happens in the next month or in six months? Right now, no one’s feeling the pain but me or no one’s really remembering her and they’ll start driving stupid again.”

The petition on change.org to implement a pedestrian light at the intersection of Carson Street and Nye Lane as of Saturday had received more than 1,600 signatures of its goal of 2,500.

“This (service) is special to me because I don’t get to give her a quinceañera, I don’t get to give her a Sweet 16, I don’t get to throw her a graduation party when she graduates high school, I don’t get to buy her a car, I don’t get to do any of those things that parents get to do with their kids, and I’ve been looking forward to her wedding day since the day she was born.”

Jessica Garcia / Nevada Appeal

Katherine Rodriguez, center, mother of Carson High School freshman Lexi Rodriguez, and Louisa Valenzuela, Lexi’s cousin from Tulare County, Calif., comforts Katherine’s son Paul at Lexi’s celebration of life Saturday at Fitzhenry’s Funeral Home.