Dolores \u201cDee\u201d (Leopardi) Ciabattoni, 92, passed away peacefully at her son\u2019s home in Lawrence, PA on July 11, 2026. She was born in the coal mining town of Edenborn, PA on March 4, 1934, the youngest of four children of John and Mary (Yaugo) Leopardi. Her parents and siblings (Joseph Leopardi, Jenny (Leopardi) Shultz, and John A. Leopardi) preceded her in death, as did her husband of 63 years, Virgil Ciabattoni. Dolores is survived by her two children, Marisa (Albert) Gregos and Dino (Debbie) Ciabattoni, as well as by several nieces and nephews.<\/p>\n
Dee\u2019s family moved to Warren, OH when she was ten years old. She graduated from Warren G. Harding High School in June of 1952. At school, she was a passionate debater against the practice of capital punishment. After working six years at the Lordstown Ordinance Depot, she left her job when she became pregnant with her first child, Marisa. After their second child, Dino, was born, Virgil and Dolores moved their young family to Cortland, OH where they spent the majority of their lives. She considered raising her children to be the best job that anyone could have.<\/p>\n
Dolores loved all people and marveled at God\u2019s creation. She was fascinated by spiders spinning their webs and was grateful for all the wildlife that God shared with her. Dee appreciated even the simple things in life like the variety of leaves and loved the poem \u201cTrees\u201d by Joyce Kilmer. She had a special love of cats, though, and rescued many dozens over the years. It took most of her marriage, but she finally made a cat lover out of her husband with a special stray cat that he named Zackee. Dee was a firm believer in the adage, \u201cHe who feeds a hungry animal feeds his own soul.\u201d<\/p>\n
After caring for Virgil until his death (October 12, 2021), her own health went into decline. Dee then moved in with her son and daughter-in-law, but not without her eight cats! Her fur kids were the grandchildren that she never had and she would never part with them. She loved children and was grateful when friends brought their kids over to share with her. Dee was also very vocal about supporting the oppressed, especially the victims in Ukraine and Gaza. She practiced kindness and compassion towards all and prayed for an end to racism and hatred of any kind. Those that knew her loved her warm and generous nature, but especially her humorous, quick wit. She believed in Christ\u2019s message to welcome the stranger and accept people for who they were, children of God.<\/p>\n
Donations are not being requested, but a few of Dee\u2019s favorite charities were CRS.org, svdppitt.org, and PennyFix.org. Instead of donating money, please consider Christ\u2019s call to follow Him by donating your time and talent in helping those in need. Doing so will be proof that Dolores touched your heart in some way. Take care and may God bless you all.<\/p>\n
Arrangements were entrusted to Pittsburgh Cremation & Funeral Care, McMurray, PA. A funeral Mass will be held at 11 AM on Tuesday, July 28, 2026 at St. Mary Church (St. Teresa of Calcutta Parish), 232 Seneca Ave, N.E., Warren, OH \u2013 44481. Inurnment will follow at All Souls Cemetery, 3823 Hoagland Blackstub Rd, Cortland, OH \u2013 44410.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dolores \u201cDee\u201d (Leopardi) Ciabattoni, 92, passed away peacefully at her son\u2019s home in Lawrence, PA on July 11,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-247874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}