Rosa Pellegrin Hetland

Rose Pellegrin Hetland passed away peacefully on August 18, 2026, at the age of 92.

One of three children, she was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, by Helen Kahn Pellegrin and Alfredo Garcia Pellegrin. She attended St. Ursuline Academy, Martin High School, and the University of Texas, earning a BA in education, before she met her husband, the late Col. Joel S. Hetland, an Air Force pilot and Vietnam veteran. As a military wife, she dutifully raised five children as the family moved extensively throughout Europe and the United States before returning to Laredo in 1984. She loved to travel, liked to stay busy, and balanced raising her children with her passion for teaching school. She later earned a master’s degree in special education from George Mason University and was instrumental in designing curricula to help schools support children with ADD and ADHD. She concluded her career teaching at Laredo Junior College and Martin High School, and was a longtime member of the Washington’s Birthday Celebration Association (WBCA).Rose was a charming, caring, and beautiful woman inside and out, as well as a wonderful, encouraging mother. While she was a gifted educator, a talented painter, a singer, a songwriter, and an excellent cook, she is most remembered for how she connected with people. She could strike up conversations with complete strangers within minutes and turn a quiet room into a party. She made a lasting impact with her profound empathy and comforting hospitality. Throughout her life, people would approach her family just to say how much they admired her, what a great teacher she was, or how kind she had been to them. She was all of that and more to her family.

Rose is preceded in death by her brother, Alfredo Pellegrin II (Blanca), and her sons, Louis Pellegrin (Patsy) and Joel Kevin Hetland.

She is survived by her brother, Andy Pellegrin (Sharon); her daughter, Julie R. Hetland; her sons, Michael A. Hetland (Carlene) and Robert A. Hetland (Tina); and 8 beloved grandchildren.

A Memorial Service will be held at 10:00am on Saturday, September 5th, 2026 at San Francisco de Javier Church, 2502 Zaragoza Street, Laredo, TX 78040. (Please take Washington St. bridge towards Laredo College, left on Evans Ave. and right on Zaragoza St.)