Dolores C. Sendler

Dolores C. Sendler died peacefully and was born into Eternal Life on Wednesday, January 12 in the company of her only child, daughter Caroline, granddaughter Heather, and her husband Gregory. Known as Lola, Dolores Guadalupe Carmona was born December 12, 1936 in Oakland, California, and emigrated with her family to Mexico City in 1942 where she became a true ‘mexicana’. She moved to NYC in 1963 where she met her first husband Robert Biggs and gave birth to their daughter Caroline in 1964. She relocated again, to Miami in 1972 where she met and married her current, adoring husband Gregory Sendler in 1984.
Her colorful life was marked by her keen business sense and her love of the performing arts. She became the first female manager of a department store in the Hermanos Sanborn chain in Mexico City. She was a voice actor, overdubbing character parts in popular US television shows like Make Room For Daddy and others, for broadcasts in Spanish. She was a co-founding partner of Miami’s International Drama Workshop, writing and directing original play scripts. Her brilliant teaching gift was tapped to help create the curriculum for 5th and 6th grade level Magnet Theater Education in Miami-Dade Public Schools. During her 17 years in the school system, she penned and directed over two dozen original plays for her students. She was commissioned in 1994 by best friend and director Barbara Lowery to write a play about the iconic Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Goodbye, My Friduchita had its world premier that year and then went on to become the longest running production at the Coconut Grove Playhouse, running the entire 1997-1998 season in the Encore Room. The play enjoyed two successful off-Broadway productions and is enshrined in the Permanent Archive of the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center. She was a lifelong opera and classical music fanatic. Her inimitable humor was both scandalous and hilarious. Lola’s vibrant, kaleidoscopic flair for life was also informed by her Catholic faith. She trained and fostered lectors for 36 years in the Archdiocese of Miami, practiced as a certified Spiritual Director, and constantly supported her husband Greg’s work as a Director of Music in the roles of soloist, cantor, dramatic narrator and choir member.
She is predeceased by father Jorge, mother Laura and youngest brother Johnny. She is survived by sisters Connie, Juanita and Mariana, and brother George, daughter Caroline, husband Gregory, and beloved granddaughter Heather (Pablo) and grandson Nathan (Tiffany), nieces Laura, Nadine, Belinda, Erika, Annie and Ashlyn, and nephews Landrum, George, Horst, John, David, Tommy and Christian.
A closed, private viewing and wake service is scheduled at Stanfill Funeral Home on Monday, January 17. Mass of the Resurrection, open to all, is scheduled for noon on Tuesday, January 18 at St. John Neumann Catholic Church, 12125 SW 107 Avenue.
Her Earthly life was an outrageous celebration that still continues in all who know and love her. !Viva la Vida!