Katherine D. Ortega - Family Life

Family Life

Ortega has cited her family upbringing as her chief inspiration in life:

I am the product of a heritage that teaches strong family devotion, a commitment

to earning a livelihood by hard work, patience, determination and preseverance.

She has often singled out her father in particular, saying that " taught me we were as good as anybody else, that we could accomplish anything we wanted..."

Ortega was married briefly when she returned to New Mexico in the late 1970s. In interviews, she has declined to elaborate on that part of her life, insisting only that she be referred to as "Mrs. Ortega." In 1989, she married Lloyd J. Derrickson, a former general counsel with Merrill Lynch and currently a board member with World Cell, a wireless communications consulting firm. She has no children.