Monee woman remembered for giving nature, volunteerism

• Reprints

Updated: May 9, 2012 9:57AM

Dolores Domke made quite an impression on the Rev. Joe Noonan when he joined Oak Forest’s St. Damian Catholic Church in July.

“She was the type of person who volunteered for any activity or event. She was willing to give her time, and did whatever was needed. She was very welcoming to me. I heard nothing but outstanding things about her,” Noonan said.

Domke, 71, of Monee, died Monday night at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn from multiple injuries received in a two-vehicle accident Sunday afternoon, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

The crash happened abouot 4 p.m. Sunday on Monee Manhattan Road, a half-mile from her home in the 25800 block of Sunrise Court, said daughter Beth Sack, of Oswego. For reasons unknown, Domke rear-ended a semitrailer truck, Sack said. Monee police are investigating.

Domke, who grew up on Chicago’s South Side and graduated from Maria High School, lived in Oak Forest about 30 years, raising five children with her husband, the late Donald C. Domke. She moved to Monee after he died nine years ago.

Sack was proud of her mother’s giving nature.

“She was a great woman, a very strong woman, very active in her church. The night of her accident, four priests stopped by the hospital to bless her,” Sack said.

Domke led a prayer group at the church, scheduled altar servers and served on the bereavement committee, Sack said.

Domke’s daughter-in-law, Colleen Domke, is the principal of St. Damian School.

“We are all in a state of shock right now. We expected her to live to 100. All five of her kids as well as myself and three of her grandsons went to St. Damian,” she said.

On Sunday afternoon, Domke visited with all of her children at Sack’s home. They had gathered to watch Sack’s 7-year-old son, Kevin, play in a pee-wee ice hockey game.

Domke loved to travel, Sack said. She recently visited friends in Arizona and Pittsburgh and had been to Italy, Poland and Greece.

“She loved to take us kids places. She didn’t care about the weather. If we planned to go to Great America and it was raining, she’d say ‘Get in the car, and we’ll see what the weather is like when we get there.’ In the blizzard of ’79, she wanted us to drive out to New Lenox to visit friends. We ended up getting snowed in at their house,” Sack said.

Visitation will be from 3 to 9 p.m. Friday at McKenzie Funeral Home, 15618 S. Cicero Ave., Oak Forest.

A funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Damian’s, 5250 W. 155th St., Oak Forest.

Burial will be at Resurrection Cemetery.