Dolores Solomon

April 21, 1922 – November 30, 2013

Dolores Isabel Solomon was born on April 21, 1922 to Beatrice Holt Solomon and John Solomon in Columbus, Kansas. She was raised by her grandparents William and Lilly DeMoss in Joplin, Missouri, where she attended public school and graduated from Joplin High School. She attended Wilberforce University in Ohio before moving to Chicago, Illinois where she gave birth to her only son Kenneth on January 25, 1943.

Dolores relocated to New York City in 1945 in search of greater opportunity for herself and her son. She had several occupations during her time in New York, first working for the telephone company, then as a nurse, and later as a real estate agent. In 1950, Dolores purchased a brownstone on St. Johns Place in Park Slope, where she would live for the next 41 years and work managing the rental apartments above her home. She invested her savings and herself in that property, which would remain one of her proudest achievements throughout her life.

In 1991, Dolores retired to upstate to Jackson Corners, New York near Kingston. She quickly adapted to the slower pace of rural life and loved gardening and watching the wildlife on the two acres around her home. When Dolores’ health began to decline in 2008, her family brought her back to Brooklyn. In her final years, Dolores saw her son and granddaughter often and was well cared for until her death on November 30, 2013 at the age of 91.

Dolores is survived by her son Kenneth Lee Solomon, granddaughter Ann DeMoss Solomon and her partner Deborah Elissa Steinberg in Brooklyn, New York; daughter-in-law Sara Hogg Solomon in Hamilton, New York; cousins Cora Quartman and Michael Jackson in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and many good friends and neighbors in Jackson Corners and Brooklyn. She was predeceased by her second daughter-in-law Sonia Witten Solomon.

Dolores lived a long and full life and will always be remembered as generous, forthright, hardworking, and fiercely independent.