Dolores Marie Allnock

Dolores Marie (Zydanowicz) Allnock, 94, died peacefully on Friday, August 22, 2024 at her much-loved “home” at Country Meadows, Frederick. A grandmother, mother and artist, she leaves behind her daughters, Linda Norris-Waldt (husband, Eric Waldt), Frederick, Sandy Allnock, Federal Way, Washington, and Debbie Allnock (partner, Brian Bick) London, England and her beloved granddaughters, Sarah Anne (Norris) Stauts and husband, Ethan, Nevada City, CA; and Julie Marie Norris, Bronx, New York. She was predeceased by her former husband Edward, in 2000.She was the daughter of Peter and Frances Zydanowicz, now deceased, of Pittsburgh, PA and sister of Ray Zydanowicz and Lorraine (Henderson) Zydanowicz, and leaves behind many nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews. 

Mrs. Allnock was born in Canonsburg, PA on December 25, 1929, and grew up in Pittsburgh, PA. She was an executive secretary throughout her career, and traveled to Japan in 1960 as part of the (there is some name for that program that I have to look up) to serve as a secretary in the US State Department diplomatic corps.  

Dolores was a passionate artist, a talent she passed on to her daughter Sandy, who now is a professional artist. She put aside her artwork during her secretarial career and two decades as a homemaker, but later devoted much time to her art and achieved her Associate of Arts at Frederick Community College at age 71. She was fond of painting abstracts and miniature landscapes in oils, acrylic, and pastel, and frequented the Country Meadows art program. She used her artistic gifts to create handmade greeting cards to raise funds for Alzheimer's research. At age 93 she won first place for an acrylic painting entered in the MD/PA Country Meadows art contest, and her art was printed on the corporation’s official holiday greeting card. 

She spent much time with her granddaughters who spent their summers and after-school times with her in their childhood.She also volunteered at the Delaplaine Visual Arts Center and for Partners in Care, Frederick, 

She was a devout Catholic who was extremely proud of her Polish-American heritage and spent years researching the genealogy of her family, a project her granddaughter Julie continues. She attended St. John the Evangelist Church in Frederick, MD. 

A Communion Service will be held in her honor in September at Country Meadows Retirement Home in Frederick in September, and her final burial will be later in the year among family in Pittsburgh, PA.