LAS CRUCES — City councilors paid tribute to the late Las Cruces Public Schools superintendent Dr. Karen Trujillo during their public session Monday, hours after state lawmakers paid tribute to her on the floor of the New Mexico Senate in Santa Fe.
"She always gave of herself to everybody else," state Sen. Carrie Hamblen, D-Las Cruces, said through tears during a noon-hour speech at the state Capitol.
Trujillo, the former classroom teacher, NMSU educational leader and state Public Education Secretary before taking the helm of New Mexico's second-largest school district, died last Thursday at age 50 after being struck by a vehicle while walking her dogs in the neighborhood where she lived.