Dolores C. Moses

Dolores C. Moses, 93, died at Arcadia Care of Aledo, Illinois on Friday, November 22. She leaves behind a son, Thomas R. Moses of Galesburg; three grandchildren, Mark T. Frenster of Galesburg, Julia Moses Nutter of Northeast, Maryland, and David Kelly of Columbia, Maryland. She was preceded in death by Lester A. Moses, her husband of 57 years, her son L. Michael Moses, her sister Constance O’Mara, and her grandson Thomas Kelly.

The daughter of a factory foreman and a mother with connections to the Polish nobility, Dee grew up speaking Polish and English in Binghamton, New York in the 1930s. An account of her childhood and coming of age can be found in her autobiographical first novel, Train from Thompsonville. The birth of her writing career may be dated from her winning the Herald Tribune Essay Contest around 1947, a formative event in her history.

After graduating from Binghamton High School in 1948, Dee attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio where she majored in English and met Lester. Parental opposition to their union, based on religious differences, was circumvented via elopement by bus to a state with favorable marriage laws, both being minors under the Ohio laws of the time, and the two finished college as a married couple. Subsequently, Dee earned a Masters in English from the University of Iowa in 1958. Dee has lived in Iowa City, Iowa; Brookings, South Dakota; Fairbanks, Alaska; New Haven, Connecticut; Newark, Delaware; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Los Angeles, California, before retiring to Galesburg.

Dee’s career included episodes as a writer of and actor in television commercials, a hospital candy striper, circulation clerk at the Ryerson Library of the Art Institute of Chicago, and, with Lester, half of the two-person Investor Relations department of a Los Angeles investment company. But Dee’s primary career was English teacher, mainly at the high school level, sometimes at the junior high school or university as well. Upon retirement, Dee launched a second career as a novelist, writing three novels, the aforementioned first novel, Family Matters, and Second Thoughts, Second Chances (available on Amazon.)

It would be impossible to convey the charming quirkiness of the woman. A lifelong antagonist of “physical culturalism” and all other manifestations of athletic interest, Dee swam a beautifully symmetrical freestyle when you could get her in the water, which was practically never. An early non-adopter of the cell phone, Dee never really accepted computers, despite being proud to have written her novels on them. Dee adored the arts, particularly music, and her greatest joy was listening to her grandson play the piano. Never at a loss for words, Dee seemed to charm anyone who touched her sphere. She will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved her.

Cremation will be accorded. Private burial of cremated remains will be at Hope Cemetery in Galesburg. Arrangements have been entrusted to Watson Thomas Funeral Home and Crematory.