Lolita "Dolores" Isabel Heilbron

Our beloved mother and grandmother Lolita Heilbron passed quietly and peacefully at home, surrounded by her children, on April 10, 2025.

She was born Dolores Isabel Del Carmen Mancini, on March 15, 1944, in Barranquilla, Colombia, the sixth child and second daughter of her parents Adalgiso and Dolores Mancini. Her mother was called “Lola,” so she went by “Loli,” or “Lolita.”

By the time she went to boarding school in Toronto, age 13, at the Loretto Abbey (an all girl’s Catholic school that exists to this day), she had already traveled all over Colombia, spent time in Tivoli, Italy with her cousins, lived for a bit in Rome, met Pope Pius XII, and traveled to Jamaica, Cuba, and New York City. She was fluent in Spanish, French and Italian.

She graduated from the newly opened Marymount Academy in Quebec in 1962.

The following year, she married Mauricio Heilbron, and moved to Southern California, starting a family a year later. She added a fourth language to her repertoire.

The family moved to the Bixby Hill area of Long Beach in 1973, where they have lived ever since.

Year after year, she would enthusiastically volunteer to be Room Mother, Class Mom, and/or Team Mom. She was a constant presence at her children’s Little League games and ballet classes. Everything from organizing dozens of fund-raising events at St. Joseph’s to helping teach Spanish to students at Hill Junior High, she touched the lives of thousands of children here in Long Beach with her genuine kindness, her effervescent personality, and unconditional love.

Her husband passed in 2018. They were married over 55 years.

She is survived by her four children: son, Mauricio Heilbron Jr. (Julia); daughter, Anni Sees (Tony); daughter, Vicki Bedell (Derek); and son, Max Heilbron (Maura).

She saved her most pure and powerful love for her grandchildren: Derek Bedell, Benicio Heilbron, Mia Bedell, Jackson Bedell and Ava Heilbron.

In the last years of her life, her happiest moments were the ones shared with those five kids.

Funeral mass will be held at 11AM on Tuesday, May 13, 2025 at St. Joseph’s Church, 6180 E. Willow St, Long Beach.