Dolores Angelina Conti

Dolores Angelina Conti, née DePrisco, died February 5, 2026, at the extraordinary age of 91. We were blessed to bear witness to her long life as a family matriarch with a quick wit and vibrant personality to match. 

Dolores was born in 1934 at The Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital at Jersey City Medical Center, the oldest of three children. Dolores was very close to her brother and sister and they spent their childhood together going to movies and listening to their favorite radio shows. She graduated from Daniel P. Sweeney High School in Bayonne, NJ, in Class of 1952, where she participated in the Glee club and drama club. Her first job was in Woolworth's 5 & 10, where she used her paycheck to buy treats for her dog, Butch. She then worked in Maidenform before moving on to Western Electric. She left Western Electric to marry her husband, Billy, and they started their family. For many years, their home was the center of every family holiday and event.  

While named after the glamorous actress Dolores del Rio, her fate was sealed when she was blessed with the name “Cookie” by her Aunt Helen. From there, the name was officially hers and a term of endearment used by family and friends. When she became a grandmother, it would evolve into “Mommy Cookie,” used by her grandchildren and great-grandchild. This one-of-a-kind nickname illustrates perfectly the kind of person Dolores was: distinctive, exceptional, and the core of her family. There has never been, nor will there ever be, another Mommy Cookie.  

Wildly funny and creative, Dolores was an avid reader and moviegoer. Her wealth of movie knowledge was endless and so impressive that her family would ask her questions instead of consulting the internet. She passed her love of books onto her children, then grandchildren, then great-grandson. She was also an artist, finding painting and handicrafts as her medium. Her home was always filled with little treasures that she crafted herself. No school project was out of her range as she was always brimming with ideas, including how to make something using anything in the house. She always found something to laugh at, even if it was her own jokes - what we refer to as “a Mommy Cookie joke” and continue to tell throughout the generations.  

Dolores was a gifted storyteller with a great sense of humor. She was a superb Crazy Eights player, a fan of Downton Abbey and Sons of Anarchy, and made delicious bran muffins, a recipe that no one can agree on, but can all agree she made the best ones. It is an impossible task to summarize a full life well-lived for a person who leaves an empty space in our family.  

Dolores is survived by, and will be missed dearly, by her children Donna Kirk, Lynn Atzeni, Nicholas Conti, and Lisa Conti, her grandchildren Jamie Atzeni, and Samantha Atzeni and her husband Adam Wilson, and her great- grandson/” favorite little guy” Cassian-Wyatt Wilson. She is also survived by her cousins.  

She was preceded in death by father Nicholas DePrisco, mother Stella DePrisco, brother Nicholas DePrisco and sister-in-law Lucia DePrisco, son-in-law Giovanni Atzeni, and several aunts, uncles, and cousins. While heartbroken, her family is glad to know that she is reunited with her beloved husband William Conti, whom she loved and missed every day. We also know that she is reunited with her beloved little sister Joan DePrisco, her best friend and favorite person. We can only imagine how much “Jess” (Dolores’s nickname for Joan) and “Dee” (Joan’s nickname for Dolores) have to catch up on.  

Dolores’s life will be celebrated by immediate family only, yet we accept with gratitude every condolence and hold thoughts and prayers in the light. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you make a donation to the Popcorn Park Animal Sanctuary, ( https://ahscares.org ) Forked River, NJ, in Dolores’s name, where she served as a patron to several of the animals.  

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