Death of Dolores Emma Marleau

On the 26th of June Dolores Emma Marleau passed away in San Diego. Dolores was the wife of William Dubart Marleau who was a son of Celeste McClenahan (Noon) Marleau, daughter of Alonzo Edward Noon. In the picture above, taken in 1946, Bill and Dolores are with their first born child, Pamela Annette "Pam" Marleau. Bill and Dolores made their home in San Diego for many years.

This narrative was written by her husband in May of 1993:

"Emma Dolores Bunts was born in Topeka, Kansas, the first born of her families' two children. Her brother, James Howard Jr. was six years younger than she. Her family gradually migrated west after her birth. Her father worked for the railroads, some road building in New Mexico and then did some copper mining in Miami, Arizona. It was at Miami she first went to school but it wasn,t long before her father again moved, this time to Huntington Park, California. There she finished grammar school, high school and then the University of California at Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Management. She was one of the early women to have a degree in a field considered strictly a "man's domain".

She met her future husband, William Dubart Marleau, at college and they were married shortly after she graduated in 1941. She then went to work for the Telephone Company and within a years time was quickly advanced into a supervisory position. She resigned from her job when husband was drafted into the army in May 1943. She went to Cheyenne, Wyoming to be near him during his "boot training" at Fort Warren. Four months later his training was over and he was shipped overseas. Dolores then went back to Riverside, California where she worked at camp Anza for the duration of the war.

After the war she, her husband and her mother, who lived with them, moved back to the Los Angeles area and finally to Torrance, California in 1951. By this time she had two children, Pamela and Wendy, and in 1954 her last child Petra arrived. Just after her family routine was well entrenched, her husbands company moved him in 1958 to work in the telephone new headquarters in Sam Diego, California. After this move things seemed to stabilize and Dolores was able to be not only a good homemaker and mother, but to actively engage in community activities. Before long she had served as P.T.A. president two times at Hearst Elementary and three times at Harvey Lewis Junior High School and also received an honorary membership in the P.T.A.. In this same period she wa very active in Girl Scouts as a scout leader, a scout district cookie chairman and serving as a supervisor in San Diego Girl Scout headquarters.
In the middle 1970s, her children were now adults and on their own, she got a volunteer job at channel ten (KGTV) television working for the program "Call For Action". About a year and a half later she became director of the program and continued in this capacity until the program was discontinued seven or eight years later. She is still doing volunteer work once a week for the Music Department at San Diego State University. She has enjoyed vacationing with her children and late traveling with her husband.

When she applied for a passport, she found an interesting thing she never knew and apparently neither did her mother and father. It wasn't until she received a copy of her birth certificate in 1973 that she found out her name was Emma Dolores and not Dolores Emma. as she thought it was for all those years. Dolores continues to be active - still square dancing, doing some traveling and being a helpful mother, grandmother and trying not to spoil he Great-Granddaughter too much."

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The San Diego Union published her obituary on Sunday, the 10th of July, in the obituary section on page J6:

"DOLORES E. MARLEAU April 5,1919 - June 26, 2005 Dolores E. Marleau, 86, of San Diego died June 26. She was born in Topeka, Kan., and was a homemaker. She was a volunteer for Channel 10 Call for Action. Survivors include her husband, William Marleau; daughters, Pamela Heyer of Alpine, Wendy Esterly of San Diego and Petra Koellhoffe of Rancho Bernardo; six grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. Services have been held. Interment: El Camino Memorial Park, 5600 Carroll Canyon Road, San Diego. "