Obituary

Dolores Magdalena Cahill

Thornhollow

May 22, 1932 — Aug. 21, 2021

Dolores Magdalena Cahill was born May 22, 1932, in Glenn Ullin, North Dakota, and passed away at her home at Thornhollow, Oregon, on Aug. 21, 2021, with her husband and five children around her.

At an early age her family moved to Hamilton, Montana, where her family worked on a dairy farm. At the beginning of World War II, the family moved to Vancouver, Washington, where her mother worked in the shipyards.

Dolores attended Providence Academy while her twin brother Vern and older brother Arnold went to Vancouver public schools. She took piano lessons at an early age and often played for the GIs at the local USO. After graduating from high school, she attended Clark College where she met Jim Cahill, whom she married in 1953 and with whom she would spend the next 68 years of her life. Twenty of those years were spent as a military wife following her husband on his various assignments in the Air Force.

During their first tour of duty in Birkenfeld, Germany, she gave birth to Kevin and to Thomas, who died in infancy at a military hospital. Some years later while stationed in England, she gave birth to Kelly and Elizabeth. Following that tour of duty they moved to Tucson, Arizona, where Katherine and Jamey were born. She moved with her children to Vancouver when Jim was assigned to Vietnam in 1965-66. Their last move was to Dow AFB, Bangor, Maine, where they stayed for five years, allowing Dolores time to earn her bachelor’s degree at the Northern Conservatory of Music in 1972. During many of these moves she played the organ at base chapels and often started choirs.

She taught music and shared her love of singing with many generations of students in the elementary and middle school in Weston, Oregon. She also inspired many with her musical gifts at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, where she was the church organist and the family have been members for almost 50 years.

She was an avid golfer, member of the Pendleton Country Club and past Women’s’ Club president. She loved the many annual trips with several couples to play beautiful golf courses in Canada. She was always ready for an adventure, whether reluctantly on horseback with her husband, 9-mile pack trips into the Eagle Cap Wilderness or rafting down the Rogue and Minam rivers. She loved having her family around her and those gatherings would often involve lots of enthusiastic singing and instrumental play-alongs by her children, who she early on encouraged to explore their musical potential. She enjoyed gardening and nurturing things to their best potential. Her warm and engaging personality drew people to her. She never knew a stranger.

Dolores is survived by her husband Jim at home in Thornhollow; her brother Vern in Vancouver, Washington; son Kevin (Beth Wasley), La Grande, Oregon, son Kelly (Jane Stuessy), Port Townsend, Washington, daughter Elizabeth (Diane Groff), Thornhollow, Oregon, daughter Katherine Britt (Rusty) Lexington, Oregon, and son Jamey, Pendleton, Oregon. Her loving legacy also includes 13 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

The rosary will be said on Aug. 31, 2021, at 7 p.m. at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Athena, Oregon. The funeral Mass for Dolores will be held Sept. 1, 2021, at 11 a.m. at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, with reception following in the parish hall.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Wounded Warrior Project or Good Shepherd Hospice.

Funeral arrangements are made through Pendleton Pioneer Chapel, Folsom Bishop, Pendleton, Oregon. Share online condolences with the family at www.pioneerchapel.com.