Dolores Moorehead Obituary (1930 – 2021) – Everett, WA

Dolores died peacefully at home with her daughter by her side. She was born in Ballard to Ethyl and Jack Pearson and grew up in Port Angeles and Everett. She remembered a home full of music and fun – even during the Depression – as her parents were both musicians. She graduated from Everett High and attended Washington State University for a year until a severe winter persuaded her to move to the University of Washington. There she earned a BA in English with a minor in Journalism (a department in which she was one of only a few students) and was a member of Zeta Tau Alpha.

After college, she worked for the phone and gas companies in Seattle, but quickly decided that she liked a warmer climate better. In 1959, she drove to San Diego in her VW Beetle packed full of her belongings. Her father humorous warned her not to take hitchhikers with her. (The car barely had room for them.)

In San Diego, Dolores began a 30-year teaching career at Helix, Francis Parker, and Morris high schools. She taught English and journalism, and her work as a consultant for school newspapers and yearbooks resulted in long weekends on campus with her students “gluing” publications in front of the computer, which in turn received many awards and accolades. She has taught in both private and public schools and was particularly proud of her last seven years as a teacher at Morse, a South San Diego public school.

In 1989, she received an MA from the University of San Diego, where she taught college prep courses after retiring from high school teaching. Other post-retirement work included jobs at the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau and teaching English to Marines, including aboard ships. In 2000 she moved back to Washington and lived in Bothell and Mill Creek. She made many new dear friends and found old friends again, including sisters from the student union. She loved being around her family and enjoyed being involved in organizing two of her high school meetings.

Always the journalist, Dolores produced humorously annotated photo albums throughout her life. These volumes document their two marriages, the childhood of their daughter Sharon, many parties and holiday celebrations and Dolores’ extensive travels in 23 countries and 33 states.

She also remained independent and curious in her later years when she enjoyed getting on a bus to Seattle. She was a breast cancer survivor and person to whom religious belief was always important, and she attended Episcopal and Methodist churches in San Diego and Washington.

She learned all her life, taking classes in everything from darkroom photography to television production, and was an early avid yoga enthusiast which she practiced for many years. She was a wonderfully loving, supportive, and devoted mother who researched and wrote the history of the Pearson family in her later years, and produced a book that now serves as a valuable family resource.

Missed by her family and friends, she is survived by her brother David, daughter Sharon (Michael), sister-in-law Lianne, nephews Kent (Michelle) and Kurt (Connie), and many great-nieces and nephews. Her brother Duane passed away earlier this year.

September 24, 1930 – October 3, 2021

Published by The Herald (Everett) October 31 to November 1, 2021.