Edith "Edie" Marie Dolan

One of the most beloved residents of The Gardens of St. Elizabeth’s (Denver) went home to God on November 4th. Edith “Edie” Marie Dolan, born Edith Marie Kelly to Sydney and Irma Rice Kelly, knew most of the residents at “The Gardens," and carefully noted when one was having surgery, uncharacteristically late to dinner, or just needed a friend. A die-hard Broncos fan, she gathered friends into her tidy apartment---decorated with photos of her seven children---for excited Sunday pep rallies.

Edith was born in Pueblo, but raised in Denver by her single mother in the 1930s-40s. 

Along with her sister Mary Jane, she attended Mount Saint Gertrude boarding school in Boulder for all of her elementary and high school education, graduating in 1949.

She attended Loretto Heights College for one year before marrying James David Dolan on August 27, 1950.

Seven children followed in rapid succession, six boys and one girl (the youngest). They spent the early years of their marriage in Kimball, NE, and South Bend, IN, before coming home to Denver. In 1968, they moved to Colorado Springs.

A terrific cook, she was a homemaker during the years that all the children were home, putting up a beautiful dinner seven nights a week. When the older children began to leave home, leaving fewer children in the house, she began to work as an office manager in a local real estate firm in Colorado Springs. Once all the children were out of the house she went to work with a florist in Colorado Springs, where she worked almost to the age of 70.

She was widowed in the summer of 2001 and lived in her house until 2012, when she took an apartment in Denver at the Gardens of St. Elizabeth. She lived there until earlier this year, when she moved into Spring Ridge Park Memory Care in Lakewood.

She is predeceased by her husband David (2001), her sister Mary Jane (2012), and her son Timothy Michael (2020).

She is survived by her children, Daniel Patrick (Cheryl), Kevin James (Virginia), Matthew Joseph, John Phillip (Dawna), Patrick Anthony, and Kathleen Marie Leslie.

She is also survived by her 13 grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren.

Funeral Mass will be held at 10am on Friday, November 15th at Holy Family Catholic Church. A reception will follow. She will be laid to rest with her husband at Fort Logan National Cemetery in a private ceremony.