Dolores Jones Bradshaw, 68, of Wilmington, North Carolina, peacefully passed away on March 11, 2026.
Born on November 2, 1957 to Jimmie and Helga Jones on the Army base at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, Lori attended Karlsruhe American High School in Germany from 1969 to 1973 and graduated from Kinston High School in 1975. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in Foreign Language from UNC Chapel Hill. For more than thirty years she worked in wastewater and public utilities, where her deep passion for the environment made her work a true calling.
In 1992 she gave birth to her only child, Valarie Michelle Bradshaw. She cherished motherhood and devoted herself to raising a daughter who would carry forward a strong sense of independence and perseverance. After retiring in 2011 following thirty-one years in her field, Lori embraced her love of gardening, travel, and family. She rarely missed a chance to cheer on her beloved Tar Heels during college basketball season.
Dolores was predeceased by her paternal grandparents, Thomas and Gertrude Jones, her maternal grandparents, Max and Maria Gretschmann, her father, Jimmie Jones, her nephew, Ian Jones, and her longtime partner, Samuel Killman IV. She is survived by her mother, Helga Jones, her brother, Robert Jones, her daughter, Valarie Bradshaw, and her nieces, Star Jones and Erika Rivera.
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