Waitress credited with introducing L.A. to nachos

In November 1970, Rocha was at work when she learned that one of her three sons, Robert, who was in the Army, had been killed in Vietnam. She fainted and later couldn't stop crying, but the next day she was back at work. "People asked her, 'What are you doing here?' and Carmen told them, 'This restaurant is my home,' " Ron Salisbury, president of El Cholo and Rand's father, recalled this week.

When her son's name was inscribed on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., his middle name was spelled incorrectly. Instead of Robert Salas Rocha, it was written Robert Silas Rocha.

Carmen and her family spent close to 20 years trying to get the mistake fixed. Their first two appeals to the government were turned down. They were told that only "gross misspellings" were corrected. A third try brought change. The name of Rocha's son was re-inscribed. She and family members went to see it, as guests of the government, for a Memorial Day ceremony.

"If someone died for their country, he should at least have his name spelled correctly," Rocha said in a 2002 interview with The Times.

In recent years, Rocha worked as a volunteer at Pasadena City Hall, took computer training classes for senior citizens and kept up her Sunday open house parties.

Rocha is survived by five children, 14 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

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mary.rourke@latimes.com