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BIG BAY, MI – Dolores (Lolly) Donahue, age 92, of Big Bay, entered eternal life Friday, February 15, 2019, at the Marquette County Medical Care Facility with her family by her side.
Lolly was born in Chicago on November 14, 1926. At the age of 16, she left school and began working at various jobs including building and welding bomb casings at a nearby plant for the war effort. As so many others of her generation the necessity for self-dependence and strong determination to cope with those difficult times were lessons that served her well throughout her life.
In 1952 with her two young children, she left the Chicago area, married and moved to Marquette. While working at the Veneer Plant, they built a home near Sugarloaf Mountain. By 1960 she had divorced and moved with her children to Hungry Hollow in Big Bay. She then married Jim McNerney and this would be where she would settle and spend her life making a home complete with a large garden, flowers, fruit trees, ducks, chickens, pigs, and a number of dogs and cats over time.
The sudden loss of her 20-year-old daughter in 1966 left a three-year-old grandson to raise.
She was an excellent cook and worked for a time at the Lumberjack and the local store restaurant.
She was blessed with a beautiful voice and loved to sing from the time she was little. She knew and loved to sing all the great songs and melodies from the 40's.
The 60's and 70's gave her the opportunity to sing with the popular McNerney Country Music Band. Playing all the local taverns and nightclubs such as Snuffy's Saloon, the Halfway Tavern, the Lumberjack, the Diamond Club, and the Idletime, to name just a few. This was her "heyday" and certainly the most intense and exciting years of her life.
She was strong willed, hardworking, not dependent on others, but content and happy in her ability and determination to provide a good home. She was sometimes described as "feisty"ù; attributed to her inherited, and "occasionally displayed, Irish temperament".
She was loving, caring and compassionate. She enjoyed life and made her way through it with a purpose; to hold close and fiercely protect all the things that were dear to her, never complaining, always making the best of things, with the courage to make changes or to move on, never looking back, and with no regrets.
She is survived by her son Michael (Patricia) Thoma; grandchildren Kevin (Marcy) Thoma, Trisa (Chris) Thoma, Donald Thoma; great-grandchildren Avery (Lindsey) Fraley, Madelynn Wright; great great-grandchildren MacKenzie Gail Fraley and Jack Edward Fraley.
Lolly was preceded in death by her parents, daughter Gail, and a brother Robert Donahue.
The family wishes to express their heartfelt appreciation to the caregivers, nurses and medical staff at the Marquette County Medical Care Facility for their compassion and loving care they gave to Lolly for the past four years.
A private gathering will be held at the Powell Township Cemetery in Big Bay at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the Marquette County Medical Care Facility Special Needs Fund, 200 Saginaw Street, Ishpeming, MI 49849.
Fassbender Swanson Hansen Funeral and Cremation Services is serving the family, where condolences may be expressed online at fassbenderswansonhansen.com