The Dos Palos Lions Club selected a longtime resident, teacher, and community volunteer, Dolly O’Banion, as the Grand Marshal for the 2024 Cotton Festival.
Mrs. O’Banion led last Friday’s Downtown Parade to inaugurate this year’s three-day festival.
She was born in Minnesota in 1948, and her family eventually moved to California and settled in the westside community of Gustine. She graduated from Los Banos High School in 1966 and two years later, married her high school sweetheart, Jerald “Jerry” O’Banion.
Mrs. O’Banion soon graduated from Fresno State and she and her husband welcomed three children into the family–Lynn, Carrie, and Jeremy.
After many years as a stay-at-home mom, she entered the field of education in the mid-1980s at Dos Palos High School, first as a Home Economics teacher then as a widely respected English teacher.
Much of that ‘respect’ comes from her fellow educators who worked alongside her.
“Dolly is a good lady from a good family,” said fellow educator Bill Van Worth, who has known her for well over 20 years. “She is very giving, and if a kid asked for something, she would get it for them.”
Van Worth also noted that O’Banion has always been involved in local athletics.
“Dolly might be the biggest donor to the high school athletic boosters program over the last three or four years,” he said. “She is Dos Palos through and through.”
Another fellow educator, Frank Lemos, called O’Banion “a student-oriented teacher.”
“Dolly has always been very friendly to me,” said Lemos. “She was always focused on the students and did her job as to how it relates to student success. She was always concerned about her students and wanted them to perform at their highest level.”
Like Van Worth, Lemos said that O’Banion has always been supportive of the Dos Palos community as a whole.
“Dolly is just a very nice lady. She has always treated me with the utmost respect, and this honor is well-deserved.”
Besides her interest in Dos Palos Bronco athletics, O’Banion also enjoys time with her two dogs, “Sheba” and “Tucker”. She spends a lot of time helping her eight grandchildren, attending their athletic and school events.
