The Dolejs sisters, Anna, 20, Marie, 17, and Rosa, 19, were all employees of the Western Electric Company. The morning of the Eastland Disaster, these girls had left their youngest sister Bess at home with their mother Mary Dolejs.
Mary's husband Josef Dolejs had passed away in 1905 at the age of 48, leaving his wife and children without a head of household and breadwinner. At the time of the tragedy, the three Dolejs sisters were the sole support of their family.
Bess was very disappointed that she was not given permission by her mother to join her older sisters for the picnic that day. “Bessie, there is too much work to get done around our house, and too few hands to do it!” her mother would say. After the tragedy, Bess went on to work at Western Electric in the Contract Sales Department. She was also a standout softball player for the Western Electric Girls Ball Team.
Although the three sisters were buried together at Bohemian National Cemetery, no grave marker was ever laid due to extreme family financial constraints at that point in time. Nearly one-hundred years later, however, several family members banded together and arranged to have a gravemarker placed to honor the memory of Anna, Marie, and Rose.
