Rafael Ballester

Rafael Ballester, age 86, was always an outsider made to feel welcome. His first 26 years were spent in Havana, Cuba. Sent as an orphan to a military school, he exceled socially if not academically and learned self-sufficiency the hard way. It was a time of extreme fun and pain as the 1959 revolution took everything away except for his integrity. After briefly living in Spain, he arrived in the United States and settled in Oakland, California in the 1960s. It was there that he found peace, stability, and community amongst diverse friends and a strong network at his job at General Motors. A work transfer brought him to St. Louis in 1983, where he quickly was embraced by a new community and cherished friends. He loved baseball, classical music, Elvis and Motown, 1940s-1950s Cuban music, Mach 1 cars, tropical fruits, the San Francisco Bay Area, and nature. He is preceded in death by his wife of 60 years, Rosa Ballester and is survived by his beloved sons Ivan and Roland Ballester, daughter (in law) Christina Ballester, and three grandsons - Christian, Nicholas, and Alexander. Rafael was tested in many ways and in every instance, showed himself to be a man of tremendous honesty, dedication, and loyalty.