Amanda Heather Cates – beloved wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend -- passed away on April 29, 2025, in Santa Fe, NM, from complications due to cancer. She was surrounded in her final hours by her closest family members.

Amanda was born on February 21, 1975, in Las Vegas, NM, where she spent her earliest years. In 1977 she moved with her family to Gallina, NM, then to New York, NY, and finally to Austin, TX, where she lived from 1979 until 1983. In 1983 she and her family moved back to Las Vegas, where she attended Paul D. Henry Elementary School and Memorial Middle School, and graduated from Las Vegas Robertson High School in 1993. She attended New Mexico Highlands University, then began a varied and highly successful career in health sciences, working at Graham's Pharmacy, Centro Campesino de Salud, the Las Vegas Clinic for Children and Youth, and Alta Vista Regional Hospital, all in Las Vegas, and at Mountain View Regional Medical Center in Las Cruces, NM. She served in a wide variety of capacities as a Registered Pharmacy Technician and Nursing Technician, specializing in general nursing, pediatric nursing, surgical nursing, critical care, emergency care, and geriatric care. She was highly respected by her supervisors and colleagues for her extensive knowledge and her intellectual curiosity, which led her to research information and identify solutions to any problem with which she was confronted. She was also highly prized by her colleagues for her affability, her quick wit, and her thorough knowledge of and genuine interest in her profession. She was loved by all her patients for her friendly manner, and her deep compassion and care for all her patients – adults and children.

Returning to Las Vegas in 2007, she met Roy Isaac Cates, her soulmate, whom she married in Las Vegas, NV, in 2015. The couple lived for a time in Las Vegas, NM, then purchased a home and property in Colonias, NM (near Pecos), where they owned and operated LK Swine Farms, providing natural pork and beef products and organic produce to area restaurants and to private customers at farmers' markets in Las Vegas, Santa Fe, and El Dorado, NM. In the Fall of 2023 she began a new career, this time in education, serving as school secretary at El Dorado Community School in the Santa Fe Public Schools District. Again, she was highly respected by her supervisors and colleagues for her intelligence, for her work ethic, and for her willingness to take on any assignment and to complete it with professionalism and good humor. Her compassion and caring made her especially adept at working with the most difficult, hardest to reach children. She was beloved by all members of the El Dorado community – administrators, faculty, support staff, students, parents, and general community members.

Throughout her adult life, Amanda's greatest joy, and her proudest accomplishment, was her role as a wife and mother. Nothing was more important to her than the well-being of her children. The four of them were always uppermost in her thoughts and concerns, and her status as a mother was respected by all who knew her.

Amanda was preceded in death by her mother, Susan L. Leger, by her paternal grandfather, James A. Leger, by her maternal grandparents, Lola and Claude Lathrop, by her uncles, George and Gary Leger and Michael Coca, and by her maternal great-grandparents, Henry and Mary Goldenberg. She is survived by her husband, Roy Isaac Cates and her twin children, Hilario and Addison Cates of the family home in Stanley, NM, and by her sons, Francisco and Diego Garduno of Albuquerque, NM. She is also survived by her father, James K.

Leger and wife Susan (whom she considered her mother), her sisters Rebecca Maestas and brother-in-law Darren, of Rio Rancho, NM, and Patricia Neddeau of Albuquerque, and by her nieces, Felicia Rodriguez and husband Ryan Burkett of Boston, MA, Angelica Rodriguez of Boulder, CO, and Niah Neddeau of Rio Rancho, as well as by her nephews, Jaiden and Aaron Maestas and wife Leandra, and Nolan Neddeau of Rio Rancho.

She is also survived by her paternal grandmother, Josephine Leger of Las Vegas, uncle and aunt Robert and Evelyn Leger of Las Vegas, uncle Wayne Leger and partner Cindy of Tijeras, NM, aunt Josephine E. Leger of Las Vegas, and great-uncle and aunt Henry and Shirley Goldenberg of Santa Clara, CA. In addition, she is survived by her mother-in-law, Loretta Overberger and husband Joe of Roy, NM; father-in-law William Cates of Albuquerque, and brothers-in-law Tyler and Koen Overberger of Las Cruces, NM. She is also survived by many cousins and second cousins, and grand-nephews and a grand-niece, with all of whom she was very close, who loved her deeply, and who cherish her memory.

Rosary services will take place on Thursday, May 15, 2025, at 6:00 at Our Lady of Sorrows Church. The Funeral Mass will be celebrated on May 16, 2025, at 9:00 A.M., also at Our Lady of Sorrows Church. A reception for family and friends will be held immediately following the Mass, at the home of Zac Ebell, 22 Rudolph Drive, in Las Vegas. Interment will take place at a later time, still to be determined, at Mount Calvary Cemetery, where she will be buried with her mother. Pallbearers include Jennifer Chittum, Joseph Leger, Juliana Leger, Julia Lucero, Tyler Overberger, John Sais, Shelly Ogle Schwent, and Vinia Tapia.

Arrangements are entrusted to and under the care of Rogers Mortuary 600 Reynolds Ave Las Vegas, NM 87701 505-425-3511 or 1-800-479-3511.

Please visit our online website www.rogersmortuarynm.com to sign the online register book.

If sending the family a sympathy card via our online service you may mail it directly to the family by clicking "Send to Family Address".