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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Dolores Mary Vallier Westrich, our beloved “LoLo,” born Sept 25, 1929, passed away on April 25, 2015, with her husband Jim holding her hand.
She fought a courageous battle with breast cancer and leukemia, and died with the grace and dignity with which she lived her life.
She was a Lake County resident for 23 years.
LoLo was a gifted artist who created beauty in media ranging from oil-on-canvas to scrimshaw and stained glass.
She was a talented writer who began her career still in high school as a weekly columnist for the Desert Limelight newspaper in Palm Springs, Calif. By the age of 20, she was writing a daily column for the Colorado Springs Gazette.
As a freelance writer, she authored two nonfiction books, numerous short stories and magazine articles. She was a prolific poet who published more than 100 poems. Her work was published in several magazines and newspapers, including the Christian Science Monitor and The Saturday Evening Post.
As gifted as she was, LoLo’s greatest joy was her role as a wife, mother, grandmother and aunt.
While raising her children, her home was a gathering place for all of the neighborhood children. She delighted the younger children with her summer afternoon storybook readings. Older children were amazed to find that she was genuinely interested in their opinions and ambitions.
Importantly, she took the time to teach anyone who was willing the art of consuming great quantities of vanilla ice cream and chocolate brownies.
LoLo’s most endearing characteristics were her beautiful cheerfulness and her openness to ALL people. She never passed a down-and-outer without contributing something; a new mother without telling her that her baby was the most beautiful she had ever seen (she truly meant it each and every time with no sense of any contradiction), or anyone who needed cheering up. That’s who she was. She was LoLo.
LoLo is survived by her husband of 51 years and best friend, Jim; her children: Michael Sims (Mary), Russell Sims, Dolora Westrich and Shawna Gannon; eight grandchildren; and five great-grandsons.
She also is survived by her loving brother and lifelong confidant, Dr. Robert Vallier (Jeanette); niece, Kris Kouzelos; nephew, Todd Robertson and their families.
Lolo is predeceased by her sister, Dorothy Donahue.
To know LoLo was a joy and a privilege. As a friend wrote recently, “Heaven will be a better place when LoLo Westrich arrives.”
A funeral Mass will take place at 12 p.m. Wednesday, April 29, at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Middletown.
Arrangements under the care of Jones & Lewis Clear Lake Memorial Chapel.
Please share your loving memories of Dolores by signing her online guest book at www.jonesandlewis.com and www.legacy.com .
