Dolores Mary Moffat

Dolores Mary Moffat (née Comella), born at the home of her parents, Cosmo and Amelia, on April 20, 1927 in Oakland, California, passed away peacefully on February 1, 2023 in Kerrville, Texas at the age of 95 from congestive heart failure.

At the age of 15, while a student at Castlemont High School in Oakland, Dolores took a part-time job in meat wrapping. After graduating in 1945 and trying other types of work, this experience eventually led to a long career in the meat department at Safeway. Ever the industrious worker, in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, she sold Sarah Coventry jewelry in the evenings after her shifts. In 1969, Dolores moved with her Husband, Jim Moffat from San Leandro to Sebastopol and then to Santa Rosa. It is here that, while working at Safeway, she began classes to earn her real estate license, got her license, retired from Safeway and began a second career in real estate.  She eventually also earned a broker’s license. With her husband, she developed several properties in Sonoma County. She also helped friends and family members purchase various properties in California.

After retiring from real estate, Dolores did not slow down. In 1998, she moved to Dublin to be closer to her family and pursue her life-long passion for gardening and flower arranging. Of her love for roses she said “When I was a young girl my father rescued some roses from the neighbor’s yard and I’ve been growing them ever since.” She belonged to numerous horticultural and flower arranging organizations, including the American Rose Society, California Garden Clubs, Inc., Organization of Floral Art Designers, Livermore Amador Valley Garden Club, Diablo Women’s Garden Club, Santa Rosa Garden Club, Redwood Empire Rose Society, Bay Area Arrangers Guild, and Ikebana International. She traveled around California in her car to serve as a judge in many competitions and shows. In addition, family and friends knew to consult her on matters of gardening and landscaping due to her vast knowledge on the subject.

She went on excursions to Japan, Europe, the Panama Canal, Mexico, the Caribbean and Alaska. Her last trip, at age 91, was a two-week tour of Italy with a stop at Positano to attend the wedding of her grandson.

Beautiful and sophisticated, she was known for her flair for life and dressed accordingly, in flowing outfits and ornate jewelry. Dolores was preceded in death by her husband Jim, parents Amelia and Cosmo Comella, as well as sister, Lorraine Holien, and brothers, Thomas, Mark and Robert Comella.

Dolores has many devoted friends and family members. She was greatly loved and will be greatly missed by her daughter, Marilyn Pickens, her grandsons, Matthew Pickens and Jeffrey Pickens, her granddaughter-in-law, Stefanie Pickens, and nieces and nephews: James Holien, Nancy Malcolm, David Holien, Carolyn Comella, Mark Comella, Rosemary Comella, Vivian Pochop and Jay Comella. She will be remembered by all who knew her as a person of great character, with a wonderful sense of humor.

A funeral mass will be celebrated on April 29, 2023 at 10 am at St. Raymond Catholic Church 11555 Shannon Ave. Dublin CA 94568. It will be livestreamed on YouTube. 

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