MS DELAWARE SENIOR AMERICA 2011,
DOLORES HARTLEY

CONGRATULATIONS to DOLORES HARTLEY, Ms Delaware Senior America 2011!

Dolores was an Air Force military brat who traveled around the world throughout her childhood. Her father was a colonel in the Air Force who flew transport aircraft and met her mother who was an Army nurse in World War II. She lived in Washington, Nebraska, Texas, Japan, Alabama, Delaware, and the Azores. Her senior year in high school was spent in Dover, DE and she attended the University of Delaware for a BS in Business Administration and Economics.

Immediately after graduating from the University of Delaware, she joined the Air Force and graduated from Officers' Training School. She was a Management Analyst, Budget Officer, and Comptroller while on active duty and was stationed in Denver, CO, Boston, MA, Takhli, Thailand, and Zaragoza, Spain. While in Spain, Dolores completed her MA in Public Administration from Ball State University. She married a Flight Surgeon in Spain and returned to the US to Austin, TX. Her husband went into private practice and she joined the Air Force Reserve as a Supply Officer at Bergstrom AFB. Using her GI Bill, she fulfilled a life long dream of becoming a nurse and completed her BSN at the University of Texas.

She and her husband divorced when their daughter, Tara, was less than a year old so Dolores worked at Bergstrom doing her reserve work and also worked as a nurse in ICU. In 1995, she was offered an active duty assignment at the Air Force Reserve Headquarters at Robins AFB, GA. Although she met the board and made Colonel, she turned it down as she made a commitment to the Supply Headquarters and did not want to move her daughter again while she was in high school in GA. It was a decision she never regretted. Her daughter, Tara, graduated from Valdosta State University in GA and supplemented her income from scholarships she won in the Miss America pageants throughout GA.

Dolores retired from the USAF after 34 years and became involved with the pageant system; she wanted to give back to the community that supported her daughter and enabled her to graduate debt free from college.

Dolores is currently involved in the reserve officer association, the Military Officer Association, as well as the Texas Nursing Association. Presently, she is treasurer of the Miss Warner Robins Scholarship board and is an accredited judge for the Miss America Organization. Plus she enjoys judging other pageants in GA and other states as well. She enjoys snow skiing, water aerobics, traveling, dancing, music, staying fit and preparing teens/young ladies for competition. Her parents, now deceased, made their home in Dover, DE so she has strong ties to Delaware, the First State. Her daughter has the traveling gene from her mother and has lived in San Diego, CA, Atlanta, GA, China and is now in Zaragoza, Spain where she teaches English.

Dolores resides in Warner Robins, GA with her two rescue dogs, Sassy and Buttercup, AKA The Cow. She embraces life and is a glass half full type of woman. This is indeed the Age of Elegance for Dolores.