Raymond and Lupe Torres were both born in the Houston area: Lupe at Herman and Raymond in Sugarland. Lupe grew up on the east side of town and Raymond on the west.
Small world…for sure! Lupe went to middle school with Eve Bennett and then without knowing it ended up in this same neighborhood. Raymond went to middle school with Peggy Martin at TH Rogers though they did not know each other and did not even realize it until recently. Lupe and Raymond went to San Jacinto High School as did Eve. It was at San Jacinto where Lupe and Raymond met and began dating. Raymond attended South Texas Junior College for a semester but quit, thinking that he was going to be drafted and they wanted to get married. Raymond was never drafted.
They got married shortly after high school and originally lived on the east side of town near Lupe’s grandmother’s house where she grew up. They bought that 2-bedroom 1 bath house and had both of their children there. Raymond began working in construction with his dad for John Jamail Properties. At that time, John Jamail Properties was building many apartment units around town. Lupe went to work at the old courthouse for a title company. They had two children: first a son named Scott and then, a daughter named Libby. Their first mortgage payment was $72 a month.
In 1973, Jamail filed for bankruptcy and Raymond had to get into something quick. Raymond’s uncle helped him look for work framing houses in Lakeside Place. In late 1973 Raymond framed his first home for Tutton Enterprises in Ashford Village. Tutton liked his work and Raymond went on to do all its homes from then until 1979. The high interest rate that year was killing home builders and Tutton came to a halt that year.
When Tutton began building Village West in 1976, it offered Raymond the opportunity to be the builder of 5 homes on Briar Forest and then several more on Briar Rose and Inwood. Raymond was able to pick the lot to build he and Lupe’s home on Meadow Lake from the developer’s plat. Raymond picked a plan and built their home and they moved in, March of 1978. Raymond had a hand in the construction of about 1/3 of the Village West homes. They also built in Lakeside Place, Shadowbriar, Mission Bend and Williams Grant in First Colony.
Their son and daughter attended Askew Elementary when it was first built. There was a strong parent involvement and parents could not ask for a better school. They went on to Paul Revere Middle School and then to Robert E. Lee High School. Scott attended UT and lives in Pflugerville with his wife, Cassie. Scott works for Net Spend and Cassie is a high school teacher. They have one son, Noah and they adopted two sisters: Allie and Avery. Libby lives in Richmond Texas with her husband Greg and daughters, Irene, and Carolyn. Libby is a registered nurse and full-time mom. Greg works for Marathon Oil.
After Tutton, Raymond began to work for John Clayton Homes but also pursued remodeling and home building. John Clayton Homes was a hands-off type builder and let Raymond run the jobs. In 1982 things began to go bad again as Texas went into a recession. John Clayton Homes was able to hang on until about 1985. In 1986, Raymond was contacted by the developer about building homes in Stonehenge Community. The developer financed 3 homes for Raymond, but these homes were competing with foreclosures and they did not sell. That cemented in Raymond’s mind to settle for remodeling and only custom homes for individuals.
In 1994 and 1996, Raymond built 2 more custom home in Stonehenge, which by the way, did not flood during Harvey. Raymond did many custom car ports, bathrooms, 2nd floors, room additions, decks, trellises and more. Lupe worked at the title company for only a few years and got a job at Memorial Methodist in the M.D.O. Program after they moved to Village West. She later got the same position with St. Cyril Catholic Church. She also worked part time for Hallmark Cards. She retired in 2019 leaving Raymond to be the sole supporter. Raymond still does small jobs around the neighborhood and works part time at their church, St. Justin Martyr Catholic Church as assistant maintenance.
Raymond and Lupe celebrated their 50th year of marriage last year and have lived 42 years on Meadow Lake. They have seen Houston go through a lot of trauma with recessions, hurricanes, and floods. They have seen the west side develop from cow pastures and cotton fields to what it is now. Raymond has seen multi story buildings built and torn down in a matter of a few years. Reymond believes that some see Houston is ugly, it is crowded, hot, humid, noisy, and polluted with too much traffic and it flat too. The bayous carry treated sewer water to the bay and our parks are at best, average. So, you may wonder, why do people continue to move here? Raymond believes it is because they love Texas. It has a spirit of freedom and opportunity for anyone that seeks it.
For them, Houston is their home and will be until God calls them home. They help a great deal at their church in different ministries. They try to help those less fortunate and simply try to be good Christians and good neighbors.
They want God to bless all their Village West neighbors and VW certainly wants God to Bless Raymond and Lupe Torres for being a foundation to our community!
