Obituary of Dolores Marie Sole

Dolores Marie Sole (Mele), aged 91, passed away on Tuesday, March 22, 2022. She was born and raised in Paterson, NJ, to parents, Joseph and Jane Mele, on June 21, 1930. Dolores was a longtime resident of Warren, NJ, since 1968.

In 1948, Dolores obtained her high school diploma from East Side High, in Paterson, NJ. After high school, she attended a fashion academy in New York City.

Afterward, Dolores briefly worked as a seamstress, and then she was a loving and caring homemaker to her late husband, Joseph.

She enjoyed many expressive and creative hobbies such as oil painting and gardening in her youth, and she also greatly enjoyed sewing and dressmaking. Above all, Dolores loved the company of both dogs and cats.

Dolores and her late husband Joseph unfortunately never had children, but for decades told people that their nephew, Christian, was like their son.

She is preceded in death by her loving husband, Joseph Sole in 2018; her father, Joseph Mele, in 1977; her mother, Jane Mele, in 1981; and her brother, Carmine Mele, in 1997.

She is survived by her loving sister, Eileen Whitney; her two nephews, Christian Whitney and Nelson Whitney II; and her niece, Noelle Whitney.

All funeral services were held privately.

A visitation was held on Sunday, March 27, 2022, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., at Higgins Home for Funerals, 752 Mountain Blvd., Watchung, NJ. A Funeral Mass was held on Monday, March 28, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. at Blessed Sacrament Church in Martinsville, NJ.  Entombment followed at Resurrection Cemetery, Piscataway, NJ.

Memorial donations may be made in Dolores’s memory to ASPCA on their website.