Dora was born in a hospital that was within walking distance of the Los Angeles, Ca. beaches. Her father, Baldomero (Mero) Montez, and her Mother, Soledad (Chole) Solis-Montez, had four of her siblings waiting for her. The oldest was Rick Montez, then Emma Montez, Librado (Sonny) Montez and Arcadia (Negra) Montez.
After an incident involving a “Zoot Suiter” Mero moved his family to a section of Oakland, Ca known as “Jingle Town”. They eventually moved into a home on 19th St near 20th Ave. Chole gave Mero a document to sign and what he thought was a rental agreement was actually a purchasing agreement. Chole had tricked him into buying the home they would live in for the rest of their lives.
In 1957 Dora was blessed with a baby brother, Azuncion Carlos (Chone) Montez. Most of Dora’s summer’s were spent with her many cousins in Gilroy, Ca. In 1960, when she graduated from Oakland High School, she went to work at a cookie factory, named Sunshine Biscuits, where, in 1962, she met her future husband.
When she was twenty one years old, Dora moved out on her own into a boarding house on 89th Ave a few blocks west of E 14th St. One weekend friends of Dora and her fiancé asked if they would go to Nevada and be witnesses to their marriage. On Oct 27th 1963, Dora married William Dick Shelton. Their male friend backed out of their marriage and the female friend cried all the way home (they married later).
Dora continued working at Sunshine Biscuits until 1970, when Dick became a computer programmer and they moved to Sacramento where he worked at the California Highway Patrol. In 1972 Dick’s brother asked them to be partners in a restaurant and they moved back to San Jose in the bay area. Dora learned how to hostess, bartend, party plan and most other business operations.
In 1979 Dora went to work for Product Development Corp. and she was the sole employee running a storage warehouse. A year later Dick joined her in working for PDC while they still owned, and participated in the operation of, a cocktail Lounge in Santa Clara. In 1982 Dora was promoted and they moved to Merced, Ca. Even though she was wary of entering the world of computers Dora excelled in her new position as a group leader of a dozen order entry operators for telephone directories.
In 1986 they were transferred to Denver, Co and continued in their same jobs. In 1990 Mero was becoming very ill and they moved back to Fresno, Ca where Dora continued working for PDC.
In 2013 Dora’s two older brothers were ill and Dora moved to Lake Havasu, Az to be closer to them. In 2015 Dora returned to Fresno, but had developed an illness called Myasthenia Gravis. In 2018 she was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia and survived for six months.
A celebration of Dora’s life will be held Saturday, January 12, 2019 at 11:00 A.M.
At the clubhouse of:
El Rancho Mobile Home Park
1830 East Yosemite
Manteca, California 95336
No flowers, please.
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