Dolores Ruth Antreasian

Dolores (Dee)Ruth Antreasian, age 89, of Indianapolis, Indiana passed away on Thursday February 14, 2019. Dolores was born November 13, 1929 in Huntington, West Virginia to Ruth E McDaniels and Francis B McDaniels.

Dolores grew up in Anderson, Indiana and graduated from Anderson High School. She sang in the choir at church and enjoyed summers at her grandparent's farm in Kentucky. She attended Indiana University Indianapolis where she was certified in Radiology technology. She worked at St. Johns Hospital (Anderson, IN) as an X-ray technician then obtained a position at Methodist Hospital (Indianapolis) where she met her future husband, Berj Antreasian. After a whirlwind romance of 3 months, she and Berj married and honeymooned in New York City before he was shipped to French Morocco to serve in the Air Force. Dee met up with him sailing solo across the ocean on an ocean liner. She spent 2 years, what she described as wonderful and romantic years, in Morocco & traveling throughout Europe. She returned to the states expecting her first child and settled with her family in Indianapolis. She had 3 children, Alexandra, Mark & Peter. She stayed at home to raise them. Dee loved to sing, sometimes singing opera, and with her humor it was hard to tell what she thought was real opera singing or teasing. She had a wonderful sense of humor, making funny faces and laughing out loud. You could hear her laugh miles away and just gave those laughs her all. Laughter was the cure for everything. You couldn't ever be sad because she would give you a face and everything would be okay again.

While raising her kids, Dee bowled & played tennis with her women's groups. She was passionate about volunteering to help her community. Her many contributions included membership and volunteering in the many projects of the Indianapolis Medical Wives Auxiliary, Indianapolis Day Nursery Association, Meals & Wheals and both the rental gallery at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Greenhouse at the museum where she attended to raising and caring for the museum's many orchids. She also acquainted herself with all the artists who submitted their art for rent to purchase and was an astute salesperson. She was an extremely talented artist on her own. She was such an awesome calligrapher! Peter remembers she took a class in the Japanese bamboo brush calligraphy class and he remembered how amazed he was that she appeared to master the technique! When he was little Peter remember his mother would occasionally paint water color and he would join her. She also sketched with pastels and pencil. After high school her dream was to attend the Chicago Art Institute. She was granted an interview after applying but before she left on the train to Chicago her portfolio of her work was stolen and she had to change the course of her journey.

Dee was a voracious reader. She would read & learn about orchids and eventually cared for them herself as a hobby. She also took gourmet cooking and French pastry lessons and used her skills to feed her family wonderful dishes and pastries. In the Antreasian house, no meal could be mundane. It had to be skillfully and lovingly prepared right out of a recipe from Gourmet or Bon Appetit magazine. She was a living encyclopedia; she seemed to know about everything and maybe more than the experts on certain subjects! Dolores loved to talk and talked she did! Often when her son Peter was a kid, Dee would corner his friends and talk on and on about something interesting she just read or saw on TV. "Peter’s friends were a bit wary to come over to their house in fear of another long 'lecture'!" "Your mom is not going to 'lecture' to us again is she?" they would say. According to Peter as he grew older, his friends seemed to actually enjoy and be engaged in her stories! She would always tell him how much she enjoyed us when we were young at home and how much she loved having our friends over.

Dee was a compassionate and quick learner and very talented. Everything new she tried turned into a skill, whether it was gourmet cooking, knitting or painting water colors. She was also a fan of mysteries. She visited the library at least once every 3 weeks with an empty bag and came home with the bag full of books that she would read in the next three weeks. Dee loved her birds. She could identify any bird names of most birds by appearance and by song. She kept multiple feeders and when you were there, she would say "shush.... Listen..... That's a warbler, ... jay, .....an owl". Dolores really enjoyed wild birds! She would have several bird feeders in the front and back yards. Somehow she would attract all kinds of exotic beautiful birds throughout the year. Various types of birds would return every year. "I really enjoyed watching the birds and watching her enjoy them. I was so sad for her when she was losing her sight for I know how much she enjoyed them!"

Her children and grandchildren loved her dearly and she adored every one of them. The Grand Children got to experience her making snow angels in the winter. When it snowed, she lay down in the snow and made a snow angel. She seemed to know everything about each child & would with care & love be able to select the right gifts for all of them for Birthdays & Christmas. Dee loved and adored her husband Berj. They recently celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary on February 1st of this year. Also, throughout their life together they traveled extensively to various countries around the world, including Spain, Egypt, and Russia among others.

Dolores is survived by her husband, Berj Antreasian; daughter Alexandra (David) Thomas; son Mark (Cris) Antreasian; and son Peter (Kathy) Antreasian; granddaughter Carmen Antreasian, grandson Samuel Antreasian, grandson Ryan Antreasian, granddaughter Julia Antreasian, granddaughter Bridget Antreasian and grandson Dylan Antreasian.

Dolores was preceded in death by; father Francis B McDaniels and mother Ruth E McDaniels; sister Patricia Morrow and sister Penelope Luegering.

A burial for Dolores will be held Saturday, February 23, 2019 at Crown Hill Cemetery, 700 W. 38th St., Indianapolis, Indiana 46208. A visitation will occur Saturday, February 23, 2019 from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM at Crown Hill Funeral Home & Cemetery, 700 W. 38th St., Indianapolis, Indiana 46208. A funeral service will occur Saturday, February 23, 2019 at 1:00 PM at Crown Hill Funeral Home & Cemetery, 700 W. 38th St., Indianapolis, Indiana 46208.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in Dolores' memory may be made to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memorial and Honor Gifts, P.O. Box 1000, Dept. 142, Memphis, TN 38148-0142 US, https://www.stjude.org/donate/donate-to-st-jude.html; Meals on Wheels Indianapolis, PO Box 40969, Indianapolis, IN 46240, http://mealsonwheelsindy.org/donate/; and Day Nursery of Indianapolis (New name: Early Learning), 1776 N. Meridian Street, Suite A, Indianapolis, IN 46202, https://earlylearningin.org/give/#donate.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at https://www.dignitymemorial.com for the Antreasian family.