Emma Jaresh Dolezalek, her great-grandson Dwayne, 
and a bouquet of her beloved roses.

When cold or rainy weather prevented outdoor work, Emma Dolezalek sewed, quilted, and embroidered. She embroidered dresser scarves, table clothes, and dish towels. She made quilts for daily use and also made a quilt for each of her ten grandchildren. This particular quilt is embroidered with each state’s name, flower, and bird. The quilt is a befitting representation of Emma’s real love: her flower garden. 

Emma grew roses, bulbs, and annuals in an old-fashioned front yard garden. Sunday visits to her home included a walk through her flower garden. In addition to colorful flowers, the garden paths revealed butterflies, bumble bees, rabbits, and the occasional marauding chicken or snake, which she promptly chased away. A small side yard was relegated to lawn grass, neither Bermuda nor St. Augustine, that was sometimes mowed with a reel mower.

There was always plenty of work, indoors or out, for Emma was a farm wife. She milked cows and kept a vegetable garden, orchard, and chickens. She baked bread, preserved fruits, made butter and cottage cheese, and canned vegetables in addition to preparing meals. She did her laundry on a rub board with homemade soap. During crucial times like planting or harvest, she also helped in the fields.

 Emma Jaresh Dolezalek

Emma Jaresh was born January 24, 1895, the youngest child of Czech immigrants Thomas Jaresh and Catherine Calta. Emma was born on her parents’ farm between Garrett and Ennis, Texas.

On January 4, 1910, Emma married Louis Dolezalek in Ellis County, Texas. Louis Dolezalek was born June 21, 1889, in Bohemia. He was the oldest child of William Dolezalek and Anna Stanzel. Louis died February 21, 1973 in Collinsville and is buried in Cedarlawn Cemetery in Sherman, Texas.

In 1916, Emma and Louis moved their young family from Ellis County to Grayson County by train. They bought a farm west of Dorchester where they raised five children: Bill, Flossie, Emma, Ed, and Mildred.

Emma died August 19, 1976 in the Collinsville Nursing Home.  She is buried in Cedarlawn Cemetery in Sherman, Texas.