Dolores Dorothy Benson

Dolores Dorothy Benson, age 89, of Grants Pass, died October 12, 2020 at Oak Lane.

Dolores Dorothy (Daley) Benson passed away on, October 12, 2020. She was living in Grants Pass, Oregon at the time in Oak Lane Memory Care for the past 6 month. She moved from Yuba City, California and was living at Cherry Blossom Assisted Living. Previous to that she lived in Tucson, Arizona.
She was born on February 17th, 1931 in Evanston, Illinois. Her parents were Roy John Daley and Katherine Dorothy (Johnson) Daley. She had a sister, Charlotte Katherine (Daley) Pierce. They all proceeded her in death. She married Michael Cryderman Benson on June 20th, 1953 in Chicago, Illinois. They were divorced in 1975. He passed away on March 5th, 1994. Dolores never remarried but did have as her companion from 1975 to 2009, Jack (John) Emil Schlegel. He died in 2009.
She is survived by her two sons; James Michael Benson of Belize, Central America and Charles Hamilton Benson, Sr. of Grants Pass, Oregon. She is survived by a child from James; a granddaughter, Charlene Ann (Benson) and her son, a great grandson. She is survived by four grand children from Charles; Charles Hamilton Benson, Jr., Whitney Lorraine (Benson)Fowles, Ivy Rose(Benson) Mann and Paige Michael(Benson) Miller and one great grandchild (of Ivy Mann’s, Jason Tyberious Mann).
Dolores graduated from Steinmetz High School in June 1947. Prior to this, at the age of 15, she took a job as an elevator operator at Goldblatt’s. She graduated from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois with a Bachelors degree in Education, Psychology and Mathematics.
Dolores was a devoted mother and housewife. She was baptized into the Lutheran Church in Evanston, Illinois on June 28th, 1931. She had been a junior board member of the Park Ridge School for Girls and was a member of the Winnetka Women’s Club. She had been a Cub Scout leader and a volunteer worker in the Evanston Hospital pediatrics department. She had worked as a secretary, teaching nursery school in California for three years, directed the nursery school division of an Evanston church for three years and was an assistant kindergarten teacher at the Crow Island School in Winnetka, Illinois for one year. She then became the director of St. David’s Nursery School in Glenview, Illinois for the next ten years. She has also worked as a real estate agent.