Delores Ramona (Rashid) Mcallister

DeLores McAllister, 93, of Salisbury, North Carolina, passed away Saturday, September 11th, peacefully at home. She was born, August 29, 1928, in Streator, Illinois to Lebanese parents, Michael and Idell Rashid.  They family moved to Peoria, Illinois, where she attended St. Mark’s Catholic Grade School and Peoria Central High School. She attended Marycrest College for women in Davenport, Iowa.  It was at a social between Marycrest and St. Ambrose College that she met, Patrick, her husband-to-be.  Patrick joined the Trappists and DeLores continued her education at Bradley University in Peoria. Her first job teaching was in a one room school house.

A couple years later, Patrick left the Trappists and came back into DeLores’ life.  After her father denied his daughter’s hand in marriage, they eloped in December of 1952.  A few years later, with their three small children, they moved to Silver Spring, Maryland and in 1962, with their four children, to College Park, Maryland, the family residence for the next fifty years.  DeLores obtained her Master's Degree in Elementary Education and taught elementary school for Prince Georges County for over thirty years.

After she retired from the public school system, she started peddling at flea markets.  She sold flowers, vegetables, and spices that she grew.  She sold sweet breads, cookies, cakes, flavored vinegars, powdered dips, soups in a jar, door-stoppers, grandma paddles, all things that she made to sell.  She was a fixture at the Arlington Farmers Market.  She loved the socialization that came from sharing her cooking and creativity. She stopped when Patrick became ill with cancer and for years later would say “I miss it.”

She was an active member of Holy Redeemer Catholic Church and School, in College Park, Maryland where all of her children went to school, and Patrick served as Deacon for 20 years until his death in 1994.

She spent the last nine years of her life in Salisbury, North Carolina, with her oldest daughter Teresa, and near her youngest daughter Barbara.

DeLores loved to bake and was an excellent cook.  Her library of recipes is vast.  One of her specialties was Lebanese cuisine. She was fond of her Lebanese heritage and her family traditions. Family was the most important thing to her. She had a caring, giving heart, along with a wonderful sense of humor. She loved to travel and visited, Mexico (twice), the Virgin Islands, Brazil and went on a “Thelma and Louise” trip with her best friend Betty Kiernan throughout the Midwest. She dreamed of going to China, but her feet and legs wouldn’t endure the trip.

The sparkle in her eyes and her smile will surely be missed.

She was preceded in death by her infant brother, Michael Junior Rashid, her parents, her husband, and daughter-in-law, Debra McAllister.  Those left to cherish her memory are her children, Teresa McAllister, David McAllister, Brian (Beth) McAllister, Barbara (Robert) Roberson; seven grandchildren, Christopher (Kassidy) McAllister, Brittany Roberson, Lisa (Alexander) O'Meara, Renee (Robert) Schmoll, Joseph McAllister, Sarah McAllister, Kaitlin McAllister; four great grandsons, Colin O'Meara, Jacob O'Meara, Bennett Schmoll, and Luke McAllister.

Service: Visitation will be held at Borgwardt Funeral Home, 4400 Powder Mill Road, in Beltsville, Maryland, on Friday, September 24th, from 2:00-4:00pm and 7:00–9:00pm with a short prayer service at 7:00.  Funeral Mass will be Saturday, September 25th, at 10:30am at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, 4902 Berwyn Road, in College Park, Md. Burial will take place on Monday, September 27th, at 10:00am (9:45am procession) in Gate of Heaven Cemetery, 13801 Georgia Avenue, in Silver Spring, Maryland.

In lieu of flowers donations can be made to St. Jude’s Children's Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, Tennessee, 38105.